School flooded after roof theft

Thousands of pounds of damage was caused by flooding from heavy rainfall after thieves stole lead from a Shropshire primary school's roof.

A corridor at a Gobowen Primary School was flooded this morning after heavy rainfall came through the damaged roof and into the building.

Steve Conroy, headteacher, said he was furious the thieves had caused so much damage to his school.

He said: "I've been told the lead they stole will only be worth about £20, but they stole from four different parts of the roof

"The weather is terrible today and a whole main corridor has been flooded – the water has just poured in.

"The thieves may only get about £20 for the stolen lead, but this is going to cost us thousands.

"We've already had to hire a roofer to look at the problem.

"We think the water has damaged electrics so we'll have to get an electrician out to have a look at it and then we'll have to get decorators to redecorate the damaged areas. The roofer has already told me it will cost about £800 just to replace the lead. I'm absolutely furious."

Mr Conroy said he was alerted to the problem by the school caretaker at 1am.

"The alarm was going off so the caretaker went to have a look and that's when we discovered the flooding," he said.

"We hope the school will reopen as normal on Monday after the Easter break, but there's a lot of work to do.

"It is even more heartbreaking because last year a burst pipe caused really bad flooding at the school that took months to repair and we were just getting back on our feet."

Mr Conroy said police were investigating.