Now in a move to foil metal thieves, bosses at a major Peterborough-based manufacturer of drain and manhole covers is producing the country's first plastic covers in the fight against the great drain robbery.

With the price of scrap metal booming, councils have been hit with huge bills to replace the metal covers, but Clark-Drain, in Yaxley, near Peterborough, may have come up with the answer.

Today, Peter Burgess from the company, which is the biggest drain manufacturer in the country, is keen to work with local authorities such as Peterborough City Council to help cut their losses with a new plastic cover, which have been created by its own research and development team.

He said: "The prices of iron and scrap metal have escalated over the past few years, which means thieves are taking anything they can, copper pipes and in particular drain covers.

"The drains cost just £45 to £70 to buy from us, but to have them fitted rises to between £200 and £300 for the local authorities.

"The metal can then be sold for as much as £120 at the scrap yard. It is then sold to China and in time sold back to us to build new drain covers, which means the prices go up every time.

"We use plastic to replace most covers now. They are cheaper to make, environmentally friendly, made from reclaimed materials and, most importantly, the thieves don't want them."

Since January, more than 59 drain covers have been stolen in Peterborough, including 22 from Glinton, 15 from Eye and 15 from Whittlesey.

In Cambridgeshire, more than 200 drain covers have been stolen in the last year.

Elsewhere, in Lincolnshire, about 10 drain covers have been stolen in Spalding and a further 20 from Lincoln.

Hundreds of manhole covers belonging to Anglian Water have also been snatched by thieves, putting the lives of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists at risk.

Mr Burgess said: "For us, these thefts are increasing our sales quite considerably. However, the thefts are a major concern as they bring with them risks to people and the environment.

"We develop our products all the time, and now sell metal covers which can be bolted down and locked, which can only be removed by us or the local authority."

Police launched Operation Saruman in September last year to combat the spiralling problem, after it was estimated metal thefts were costing local authorities more than £500,000 every month.

Since then, dozens of arrests have been made, and detectives are in regular contact with scrap metal yards to try to recover stolen metal.

Ironically, the new plastic covers could bring an end to this vicious circle and in time bring down the price of scrap metal.