Thefts of metal from roads and railways are soaring across Bradford as the global prices of materials such as copper and iron continue to boom.

The Council has reported a surge in the number of thefts of cast iron drain and manhole covers with a total of 207 covers stolen since the start of August.

The problem is particularly acute in the Bradford East constituency where 145 thefts have been reported. Hotspots include the Bowling, Barkerend, Eccleshill and Little Horton areas.

The Council has had to spend £35,000 from its highways budget to replace the stolen grids and is now starting to use reinforced plastic ones to combat the thefts.

Bradford-based Yorkshire Water said it is facing a £100,000-a-year bill to replace stolen drain covers, hydrants and cables.

Thieves are also putting public safety at risk by disrupting the rail network by stripping electrical cables from tracks.

The problems are worst in the firm’s North East region, an area stretching from Lincolnshire to Scotland of which Bradford and West Yorkshire are hubs, said Network Rail. It is now offering rewards of up to £1,000 to people who provide information about any railway cable thefts which result in a conviction.

According to the company’s latest statistics, thieves targeting railway cable in North and West Yorkshire caused 775 hours of delay to services between April 2009 and April 2010, costing the industry more than £700,000 in compensation costs alone.

Bob Priestley, the Council’s highways manager, said nine covers were lifted from Powell Avenue, Little Horton, last week and another three over the weekend. Twenty were stolen in Holme Wood on Monday.

The recycled plastic drain covers now being used by the Council have been weight-tested for strength by experts at the University of Bradford. The Council’s Street Scene service aims to respond to reports of missing covers within an hour.

Councillor Ghazanfer Khaliq, the Council’s executive member for environment and sustainability, said: “It’s not so much the expense, but public safety that is most important to us. These criminals either don’t realise or don’t care about the danger they are causing.

“We hope the new type of covers will begin to put an end to this problem for good and make the district’s streets safer.”

Inspector Osman Khan, of the Tong and Wyke Neighbourhood Policing Team, said police recognised that metal theft was a district-wide problem.

He said: “We have previously seen such thefts occurring in the Wyke area, however this is an issue which is not just localised to one particular area of the district.

“All the Neighbourhood Policing Teams in Bradford are monitoring scrap metal merchants and by sharing information with our partners we aim to put a stop to this and the problems it causes.”

Yorkshire Water spokesman Matt Thompson said the problem was “substantial” in Bradford and treatment works have been breached by trespassers in search of metal to steal. The company has also turned to alternative covers, made out of glass-reinforced plastic, and some iron covers and hydrants are padlocked or alarmed.

Rachel Lowe, regional spokesman for Network Rail, said it was trying to limit cable thefts from railways by adding extra CCTV cameras. The firm also has a cable theft response team.

A spokesman for British Transport Police said: “What thieves don’t realise is they are working on live cable, carrying up to 25,000 volts which can cause extensive burns and seriously putting their own lives at risk.”

Anyone with any information about metal thefts should contact West Yorkshire Police on 0845 6060606 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.