Neighbourhood Watch is joining forces with BT to try and reduce the epidemic of metal theft.

A letter by national Neighbourhood Watch chairman Jim Maddan has been put up by Bradford South’s Neighbourhood Policing Team showing the seriousness of the crime.

Mr Maddan said that as he was writing the letter, he was receiving news of a hospital in South Wales having to cancel operations because thieves had stolen cables from back-up generators.

“The papers and television are full of stories where the lives of ordinary people have been disrupted because of metal thefts,” he added.

He points Watch members to an online petition to the Government which members are urged to sign up to at http://epetitions.direct. gov.uk/petitions/406 called Cashless Scrap Metal Trade – Amendment to Scrap Metal Merchants Act 1964.