THE community centre in Princes Risborough has become the latest victim to fall foul of lead thieves.

More than £1,000 worth of metal from roofing has been stolen in recent weeks from the centre in Stratton Road.

Part of the tiling for the facility is covered in lead and thieves managed to steal a sizeable amount on August 3.

Then just a few days later when a builder was repairing the damage the unknown culprits made off with some more of the new lead.

Maggie Cooper, who works as an administrator for the centre, said: "We had quite a lot of lead on the roof, but this is not the first time it has happened and we had some lead stolen quite a number of years ago. This will put our insurance up and now we will have to find an alternative material to use, it's very inconvenient."

This comes as the UK's leading church insurer Ecclesiastical Insurance revealed that it has received more than 300 claims for theft of external metals from churches over the past 12 months.

The company believes thefts of lead, copper and other metals from roofs, guttering and lightning conductors have been prompted by the rising price of these materials.

John Coates, Ecclesiastical's church insurance manager, said: "We highlighted this problem last year in an effort to stop the problem, but it only seems to be getting worse. We don't insist on costly anti-theft measures, but in some cases they are the last defence we have.

"The real solution is for communities to rally round their churches, keeping an eye out and refusing to let thieves steal from under our noses."

Earlier in the year St Nicolas's Church in Aylesbury Road, Great Kimble, was also the target of thieves and the 13th century building suffered damage of more than £10,000 when lead was removed from the roof.

In recent weeks national newspapers have also been reporting that millions of pounds worth of lead and other metals have been stripped from buildings and shipped off to China and other countries, where demand is soaring.

The police were unavaliable for comment.