Thieves make off with £600 of fuel from Conwy Valley hall

Feb 11 2010 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

Colin Metcalf

OVER 800 litres of winter fuel has been stolen from a Conwy Valley village hall after thieves broke in twice and made off with over £600 worth of oil.

Tal-y-Bont village hall, where the thefts occurred over the Christmas period, has had to replace its winter fuel store twice, shelling out for repairs to both the boiler system and outside oil tank in order to continue operating.

Hall chairman Colin MetCalf said the thieves had not just stolen from the hall but from the entire local community.

“The village hall is a charity and every penny we have is accounted for, so these thefts have caused us extra cost we may find difficult to afford.

“These people have not just stolen from us but from the whole community as the hall is widely used.”

He added: “Ysgol Tal-y-Bont use the hall for their PE lessons each week and the hall plays host to a number of clubs and organisations who hire its facilities including the karate club, model club, Women’s Institute and the community council. We have had to send out notices to let people know there is no heating and some groups have either cancelled or rescheduled.”

Mr Metcalf said he filled the oil tank in September with £400 worth of fuel which would normally provide the hall with heating throughout winter, and he would then fill it up aging in the spring, however after the oil tank was broken into just after Christmas he had to refill it with £250 worth of fuel.

“We discovered the fuel had been taken because the boiler stopped working so we had to pay for that to be repaired as well as the extra fuel cost,” he added.

“We were then broken into a second time after refilling it. Although we had managed to secure the tank we were still waiting for an ironmonger to repair the cage the tank stands in.

“The thieves ripped the lid off and took the fuel. They must have been there some time to siphon it all off, so we are hoping someone may have seen something and report it to the police.”

Mr MetCalf said the local police are aware of the brake-in’s and were offering security advice to prevent thieves striking aging.

Anyone with information can contact North Wales Police on 0845 607 1002.