The Government’s plan to establish a ’5million national taskforce to tackle metal theft is welcome, the CLA said today (29 November 2011) but added the cash needs to be taken out of scrap.
CLA President Harry Cotterell said he was pleased the Government had been quick to recognise, in the National Infrastructure Plan in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, that ’metal theft is a serious and growing national problem that causes significant damage to communities, businesses, and the UK’s infrastructure network’.
He said: ’We welcome the ’5million taskforce led by British Transport Police, and the Government’s commitment to target metal thieves and scrap metal dealers who trade illegally in stolen metal. The CLA is campaigning on ’Taking the cash out of scrap’. We urge the Government to legislate to stop scrap dealers buying metal with cash, as part of its long-term strategy for tackling the problem of stolen metal being traded too easily within the scrap metal industry.’
