Subscribe to one or all notification sources from this one place.

Subscribe to our newsletter to get the day's top stories sent directly to you.

With more and more drain covers going noticeably missing – and road cones taking their place, I cannot for the life of me understand why a reputable scrap metal merchant would not be a little suspicious when someone turns up with one or two covers which are easily identifiable for what they are.

I mean, everybody knows what they look like, and what they are used for. Why aren’t there any rules to prevent trading in them? And in order to keep a check on it, why don’t local authorities offer a reward for anyone who sees scrap metal merchants selling or possessing them, they would then have to provide evidence as to who or where they came from?