Criminals have stolen hundreds of gully covers and paving stones from the district’s highways in the last year, leaving gaping holes that endanger the lives of unsuspecting road users.

Figures obtained by the Telegraph & Argus under the Freedom of Information Act show that gully covers and York stone flags are the items most frequently stolen from Bradford Council.

The statistics reveal that 210 gully covers and 276 Yorkstone flags have been stolen in the last 12 months, causing the Council to fork out more than £100,000 for replacements.

Steve Thornton, the Council’s principal traffic engineer, said: “This is money coming out of the public purse that would be better spent elsewhere.

“It also causes pretty severe risks for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers when gully covers are missing.”

Mr Thornton said the Council had faced situations where people had stolen the gully covers from an entire cul-de-sac or stretch of road.

He said: “Those incidents are particularly serious. We have had reports of people in vans going down the side of a road and just taking up one after another.”

A breakdown of the figures showed that the Bradford West area was the worst for thefts of Yorkstone, with 120 flags going missing in the last year at an estimated repair cost of £20,683.

Meanwhile, the Keighley and Ilkley area topped the list for gully cover thefts, with 87 being stolen at a cost of £24,186 to the Council.

Although the figures show an issue with such thefts, the problem is much reduced from the peak of mid-2008 when the Council was seeing as many as 100 gully cover thefts a week. Mr Thornton said: “It’s still a worry, but my impression was that this had reduced and the police were dealing with it.”

Bradford Council is not the only one to suffer such thefts. Neighbouring Leeds City Council had to fork out after a whole section of pavement was stolen in Church Lane, Otley.

But it is not just local authorities that have fallen victim to such thefts. Householders and businesses have also been targeted.

In one incident, dozens of stones on the driveway of an Ilkley house were ripped up by thieves in broad daylight, while 14 flagstones were also stolen from the Manorlands care hospice at Oxenhope near Keighley.