Safety rails targeted in metal theft

Metal thieves stole around 900 steel nuts from safety barriers on the riverside in Bewdley, it was revealed today.

They were later found dumped in a plastic bag a short distance away and police believe they were going to be collected and sold as scrap.

Police say if someone had leaned on the barriers they could have fallen into the water. Officers said a man was seen unscrewing the nuts, which fix the posts to the ground on Severnside South, late on Friday afternoon.

The steel railings were left in an unsafe condition because the nuts were from footings holding them in place for around 300 yards – from near the bridge down to Gardeners Meadow. A resident raised the alarm on Saturday morning and highways staff from Worcestershire County Council put up temporary plastic barriers as a safety measure.

Around 900 of the stainless steel nuts, which measure half-an-inch in diameter, were later recovered by police on Saturday night after a resident found them in a yellow sack by dustbins close to Old Tannery Court.

Local Policing Sergeant Chris Aimes said: "The theft of these nuts was highly irresponsible and could have had tragic consequences.

"If people had leaned on the railings they could have toppled into the river 10 to 12 feet below. The water level is extremely low at the moment and it is more likely anyone falling would have landed on rocks, resulting in serious injury at the very least.

"Bewdley is normally busy during weekends at this time of year anyway but it was more crowded than usual on Saturday due to the carnival.

"The bag containing the nuts was too heavy for one person to remove from the scene and was obviously going to be collected later and sold for scrap value."

Sgt Aimes said a member of the public saw a man using a large spanner to remove nuts from the barrier posts at about 5pm on Friday. It was assumed he was a council workman. He was white, around 5ft tall, of slim build, aged 45 to 50, and bald or balding.

Jon Fraser, county council customer and community response manager for highways, said: "This selfish theft poses a real danger to the public but to minimise this we have installed temporary barriers in the area to improve safety, but this costs everyone as taxpayers' money has had to be spent."