Thieves steal 'entire pavement' from Sussex village overnight

Brazen thieves have literally stolen the pavement from under people's feet in a West Sussex village after tearing out a load of slabs in the middle of the night.

Villagers in Storrington woke to find around 50 slabs had been torn out of the ground at a library car park in the dead of night.

Police are now investigating the theft of the expensive Yorkstone paving, which happened on Monday night.

James Wright, Horsham District Councillor for Storrington and Washington, said the community was shocked by the theft, which he said followed a similar incident in nearby Steyning last month.

He said: “It looks like they were stolen overnight which is obviously shocking. The police are aware and the Horsham District Council community team are assisting the police and the parks team who are responsible for the car park are on their way down to make it safe.”

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Yorkstone paving can cost around £100 per square metre when bought new, but "reclaimed" slabs are sold secondhand online for around half that price.

A Horsham District Council spokeswoman said: “The council believes that the paving slabs may have been stolen overnight.

“We are currently looking at CCTV footage of the area and have reported this incident to Sussex Police. In the meantime we are making the area safe for car park users.”

A Sussex Police spokesman said: "At 11am on Tuesday March 2, police received a report that sometime between Sunday night and Tuesday morning a quantity of York Stone paving had been dug up and stolen from a council car park in Ryecroft Lane, Storrington."

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sussex Police.

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