New rules to control scrap metal sales could be one aspect of the war against wire and metal theft.

Langley Township is hosting a private forum on Nov. 24 for mayors, councillors, bylaw officers and police from around the Lower Mainland. The info session will try to hash out a stronger, and uniform, bylaw for scrap metal.

"As it stands, thieves will steal in one municipality then pawn it off in another, if there is a lax second hand metal bylaw in one place but not the other," said Township Bylaw Enforcement Manager Bill Storie. "Everyone is affected in the Lower Mainland, so we need to be closely aligned. A bylaw that is universal will benefit everybody."

"Safety, I think, is one of the biggest issues," said Township Mayor Rick Green.

Langley Township's many quiet rural roads make it a particular target for wire thieves.

Many times in the past decade, thieves have torn down phone and power lines, and even felled utility poles.

Several times in the last few months, Langley residents have lost phone service for hours or days because of wire thefts. Green himself lost phone service for more than 30 hours a few months back.

There have been public outcries from several residents who were worried about being without 911 service for so long.

"It's putting our customers' lives at risk," said Shawn Hall, a spokesperson for Telus.

The cost is also a big concern for Telus.

As of October this year, Telus has had about 180 cases of wire theft in the Lower Mainland in 2010.

A third of them were in the Langley area, Hall said.

It costs about $50,000 to repair the average wire theft, Hall said.

Telus will have representatives at the Nov. 24 Township meeting and supports both provincial regulations and uniform bylaws, Hall said.

This is the second time in the past few years that an effort has been made to create a broad-based bylaw on metal theft.

In 2007, a committee headed up by former Langley City manager Cliff Gittens worked to draft a tougher bylaw, but it didn't find wide acceptance.

Some communities, including Langley City, Richmond and Surrey, independently toughened their bylaws.

However, City Mayor Peter Fassbender remembers that a court challenge to part of the proposed bylaw, and indifference by some communities, prevented it from being universally adopted.

"We'll be keeping our eye on it," Fassbender said of the Township's efforts.

Municipalities and other victims agree that there are just a few scrap dealers who are accepting stolen scrap. Hall said he hopes that a uniform bylaw will help police crack down, and that they can be driven out of business.

While Telus has been hammered by wire thefts in recent years, Langley Township has gone from being a major victim to shutting down the thieves.

In the worst year in recent memory, the Township spent about $200,000 to $300,000 replacing copper wire that had been ripped out of street lights, recalled Terry Veer, roads and drainage manager.

To stop thieves, the Township started installing special access plates at the base of all their new streetlights.

"So that you can't reach your hand in and access the wire," Veer said.

In the past year, there has been no significant wire theft from Township streetlights, Veer said.

"This system has worked very well for us," he said.

However, the Township is still at the mercy of metal prices. When prices were at their highest several years ago, thieves were taking anything they could pry loose.

"We were losing railings off of bridges," Veer recalled. Parks were seeing thieves take aluminum grandstand seats.

Then prices dropped steeply, and for a time nothing was being stolen. Copper thefts began as metal prices rose following the recession.

Telus can't lock up its overhead wires, but a technological change is improving the phone company's situation.

The firm is replacing a lot of its large cables with fibre optic wire. It's intended to speed up service, but a side effect is fewer wires worth stealing.

"The technological fix has got to be part of it," Hall said.

mclaxton@langleyadvance.com