A COMMUNITY has been left sickened after thieves stole expensive York stone flags from outside a church, a community centre and cottages.

Ten paving flags at the front of St Thomas the Apostle Church in Eskrick Street, Halliwell, were lifted from the churchyard path.

The Reverend Rodger Petch, team vicar in the West Bolton team, said it was not the first time the building had been targeted.

He said: “It has been a problem before and there seem to be spates of this sort of theft.

“I was frustrated, disappointed and angry when I found out.

"It is annoying that people think they can make a quick buck by taking something that doesn’t belong to them.”

The stones cost around £65 per square metre.

Mr Petch said: “The thing for us is that because it is a listed building we are required to replace like for like and that makes it a more expensive job because we have to get York stone again.

“Obviously we have insurance that can cover some of it but there’s always a cost involved. It’s more of the inconvenience than anything.

“We have a couple who are having a celebration at the church at the weekend and it is just a bit of a mess and it is not something that we can sort before then.”

The theft happened overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, October 12 and 13 and was only discovered when the caretaker from neighbouring St Thomas CE Primary School opened up the school gates in the morning.

A number of flagstones have also been stolen from outside St Paul's Community Centre in Halliwell Road, and cottages near the church in recent weeks.

Mr Petch said: "The thieves were so brazen. I have heard that somebody saw them and confronted them and they just ignored him and finished loading up what they had taken and left."

This latest incidents follow a number of flagstone slab thefts in Radcliffe and Bury.