The application for reserved matters for 25 homes has now been approved.

Click here to read the decision notice or here to read the officer's report 

Please see below for how you can find support at this difficult time 

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Please clean up after your pets on the footpaths around the village and on the Sportsfield.

Chiildren need a clean place to run around and play when they go out for exercise.

Pick up the poop to keep public areas safe and clean for everyone!

There is useful information for residents in this document from the EA  files/downloads/EA_Flooding_Advice.pdf

Lichfield District Council has created a coronavirus section on its website that has more information about community support, business support, service updates and public health information. Go to www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/coronavirus to find out more.

A Just Giving appeal has been launched to raise funds to support people and communities across the district that have been affected by COVID-19 (coronavirus).

Lichfield District Council has been overwhelmed with the community response to the COVID-19 crisis. Lots of people are joining in the volunteering effort and have been offering to help their neighbours and community members who are self-isolating.

Many more have asked how they can help. In response, the council has set up a Just Giving page to raise money to help community groups across Lichfield District to support local people most in need.

It is now even more important to offer support, as many voluntary and community groups who help vulnerable people are no longer able to continue with their invaluable work, which has placed strains on the voluntary and community sector across the district.

The Lichfield coronavirus relief fund will help voluntary and community groups to continue supporting vulnerable members of the community. This could include delivering meals to people who might not be able to prepare them themselves, providing befriending services, and developing online support.

As this appeal is for the district of Lichfield, every penny raised will be spent locally, supporting organisations that make a huge difference to the lives of some of the district’s most vulnerable residents.

To donate, please visit www.justgiving.com/campaign/lichfieldcoronavirus.

Businesses may find Lichfield's website useful and please also see the attached summary of help that is available files/downloads/government-support-for-businesses-coronavirus-covid-19.pdf

Staffordshire County Council is also issuing bulletins to explain how it is helping residents https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKSTAFFORDSHIRECC/bulletins/282a981

There was a moderate flooding event in Elford as storm Dennis hit the country. The problem began with a blockage at the inlet end of the culvert under The Beck forcing water out of the brook course called the Green Brook and onto the road adjacent to No 61 The Beck. This flow gradually increased as less and less water appeared to be flowing though the eastern end of the culvert.

There were signs that water was re-entering the culvert via the gullies once past No 55 The Beck but the flows exceeded the capacity of the first gulley draining the road and water continued to build up. Due to a significant number of blocked gullies particularly on the south side of The Beck the displaced water continued to flow along The Beck and beyond the closed Working Men’s Club. The depth continued to increase as the flows exceeded the capacity of the operational  gullies to return the water from the road to the culvert.

The Environment Agency was notified at about 8.30am and were on site within the hour with a team to assess the blockage problem and engineers to assess the pump situation. The Pumping Station was operational at all times but due to the impeded flow of the water it was unable to run continually without further manual intervention by the EA. The issue related to the inability of displaced storm water to get to the pump. As time passed the flooding situation got significantly worse as a result of an increasing flow on the Green Brook.

At the start of the event the Green Brook was discharging to the river by gravity with the penstock at the PS open. As the event developed the rising river levels dictated that the penstock closed and we were dependent on the pumping capacity of the PS and a support 6” pump that had arrived on site to keep the village clear of flood water from the Green Brook. It was clear that the operation of the PS was impeded by the blocked flow in the culvert and the blocked gullies preventing the water on the road returning to the culvert in sufficient quantity to allow the PS to run efficiently. The PS is difficult to run at the best of times due to its constrained size and depth but with the added restraint to the quantity of feed water it required great skill and sound judgement to keep the pump from switching itself off due to lack of water.  Once the more easily controlled support pump was connected the flooding was slowed significantly but over all flood levels were still increasing very gradually.

An irrigation pump provided by Ben Bridgen was also installed to pump water closer to the PS and then the increase in flooding was stopped and reversed albeit also very slowly. A second 8” support pump arrived on site from the EA depot but was not used. It was retained on site as a precaution but by 6.00pm the flood was clearly under control and falling. The EA staff stayed on site until the late evening some still working at 10.00pm cleaning gullies and tidying up.

As a precaution flood guards had been fitted to the bungalows but in the event were not tested. The situation was under control once the PS and the support pump were in place and operating although if the first support pump had been an 8”pump things may have stabilized earlier. That said we are still very happy with the support we got once again from the EA which was exemplary being both timely and professional. Given the fact that the whole country was under stress, the local roads made moving around difficult and there was significant pressure on resources Elford again was well served by the EA. Thanks also to Ben Bridgen for providing extra pumping capacity a facility also offered back at the last flood event in November 2019. It is good to see a community pull together and use all resources available to it.

As with all events there were lessons to learn and in this case a new and important one related to blockage management on the culvert and the gullies on The Beck. The gullies are far more than just road gullies they are a fundamental part of the mechanism related to successful operation of the Pumping Station once water is above ground and on the road. A review of the lessons learned will be undertaken and the Flood Plan updated and while we did not have to call on the Auxiliary Flood Wardens this time it was good to see them appearing offering help in any case and their company was welcome.

We hope to be getting the Highways people to ensure that all gullies on The Beck are clean and operational in future and we will attempt to ensure that all possibility of future blockages to the culvert are minimised. Thanks go to all involved particularly the EA staff, Ben Bridgen for his irrigation pump and the supervision of it and Gary Delderfield who controlled traffic and was present throughout the event to help as necessary.

We hope that as these events seem to be becoming a more regular feature of our changing weather patterns that we can continue to refine and develop a plan of action to ensure that we are as safe as we can be when these hiccups occur.

Dave Hill

Due to the Coronavirus outbreak the playground has been closed.

The Coffee Shop will be closed until further notice and we think the Post Office has closed for the time being. The taxi service will not run after 20th March. The Walled Garden has also closed until further notice.

The Best Kept Village Community Competition and Great British Spring Clean have been postponed.

Most regular events at the Village Hall have also been cancelled.