The way things are going, it won’t be long before there’s a spate of cutlery thefts...

And sadly, that’s no joke.

The criminal fraternity now seems hell-bent on stealing anything that even hints at being metal in nature.

So it shouldn’t come as any great surprise to learn that a local electricity sub-station became the target of an organised criminal gang keen to relieve it of its £8,000 of copper cable.

However, what might surprise you is that had the gang succeeded, the whole of Oxford and its neighbouring counties could have been plunged into darkness.

It’s commendable of course that the security measures already in place enabled police to successfully apprehend the thieves, but worrying nonetheless that a theft of such – at least on the surface – minor significance could have triggered such devastating repercussions.

Perhaps it’s time a review was made of existing security arrangements for similar sites across the county.

After all, there’s now no excuse for us to be kept in the dark.