SIR – I feel after reading the headline in your paper (January 19), ‘£70,000 bill for stolen gutter grates’, I must reply to this and reiterate what I put in my letter dated November 10, 2011.

In it I stated that it would be sensible for the Council to organise a team of their employees to lift all the grate/sewer covers and exchange them with heavy duty plastic ones before the criminals stole them and use the money made for weighing them in for good causes in various Bradford community ventures.

I also asked for a Bradford Council official to respond to my letter giving financial details of why this is not economically viable. I got no reply, but on November 21, a member of the public – Mr Rhodes – wrote and stated (without any financial figures) that it was not financially viable.

In the T&A on January 19, now Councillor Sarah Ferriby is going to take this matter further. I would seriously hope that Ms Ferriby can look into and give me reasons why my initial suggestion on how to beat these criminals doing this dangerous activity has not been taken up through your newspaper.

It may be that Bradford Council has not the foresight in how to beat these criminals or just that no-one working for the Council wants to do the job of lifting the grates and replacing them before they are stolen and the hole that is left is a potential mantrap for someone to fall down.

Darren Slingsby, Harrogate Terrace, Undercliffe