David Smith

The Lichfield Garrick set the scene to launch Lichfield District Council’s visitor guide – Visit Lichfield 2010. A handbag-sized booklet, it gives visitors a taste of what the district has to offer when planning a day out or a longer stay.

The guide is split into useful sections, including: heritage & culture, festivals, leisure, food, shopping, accommodation and wedding & conference venues.

I had great pleasure in launching Visit Lichfield 2010 in front of tourist providers, contributors and special guests on Tuesday 9 February.

From the recent Staffordshire Hoard find, to the stunning Lichfield Cathedral and National Memorial Arboretum, through to the thrills and spills of Drayton Manor Park, now in its sixtieth year, Lichfield district is a fantastic visitor destination.

Tourism is an important part of our local economy. More than three million visitors travel to our district each year, spending around £90 million and supporting 3,000 local jobs. In today's financial climate, it is even more important that we encourage visitors to our district, so I am delighted to launch Visit Lichfield 2010.

The council’s Tourism team has already distributed 73,000 copies of the guide to tourist attractions and tourist information centres all over the country, and even further a field.

Visit Lichfield 2010 is now available at Lichfield's award winning Tourist Information Centre in the Lichfield Garrick. So, if local people are looking for something exciting to do on their doorstep, or just want to know what events are coming up, they can pop into the Garrick and pick up their free copy.

To find out more about Lichfield district’s tourist attractions log onto www.visitlichfield.co.uk

Photo: Here is am posing with the Visit Lichfield 2010 guide with Colin Bryan (Managing Director of Drayton Manor)

One billion gallons of water will drain out of Chasewater’s reservoir, to allow essential safety improvements to the reservoir to take place

A team of reservoir experts and representatives from Lichfield District Council have today opened the valves, to allow around one billion gallons of water to drain out of Chasewater reservoir.

The reservoir is being drained in preparation for a major programme of safety improvements to Chasewater’s eastern dam. These works will make sure the dam remains safe for years to come.

Now that the valves are open, the water will flow into the Anglesey Branch Canal and then into Crane Brook – which will join the River Tame in Fazeley.

Visitors to Chasewater will notice that the reservoir’s water level will drop dramatically over the coming months. As the water level goes down, it will expose the muddy reservoir bed, which visitors are being warned not to go near for fear of soft, deep mud and silt.  

This is why the district council is putting up temporary information panels across Chasewater. These will warn about the dangers, explain what the works involve, and how long they are expected to take.

While the works take place, visitors are asked to:

• stay on marked footpaths
• keep children and dogs under close supervision, away from the reservoir bed
• not walk on the exposed reservoir bed at any time

I attended today with Councillor Val Richards, Lichfield District Council’s Cabinet Member for Leisure Services who said that opening the valves to drain the reservoir signifies the start of a major programme of safety improvements. Getting to this stage is the culmination of a lot of hard work, and it is good to finally get started on these works as it is essential that we make sure the dam meets current safety standards, making it safe for years to come.

It is very important that visitors follow our safety advice. However, I would like to stress that Chasewater Country Park will be open as usual. Visitors can still enjoy the surrounding countryside and facilities, including the heritage railway and Innovation Centre.

The works cannot begin until the water level has been lowered. The works will take around seven months to complete and should be finished by the end of the year. The council expects to start refilling the reservoir in September. However, it could take between two and four years to refill it to its normal level, as it will depend upon rainfall levels and the amount of water the local canal network needs.

I would like to extend our gratitude to the clubs that use Chasewater reservoir for their understanding and patience during these works.

To keep up to date on the works and to watch the progress of the water levels dropping captured by a ‘Dam Cam’ visit www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/chasewaterdamblog

More than one hundred people came to the free event at the Lichfield Garrick, to find out more about how to make the district greener at a local level.











We’re delighted the conference has proved popular with local people, and places booked up so quickly. This shows that, as a community, we are ready to act on climate change. The day was extremely interesting, and we heard from experts who presented simple ways that we can cut our emissions, and tackle the district’s carbon footprint.”

Guest speakers at the Go Green conference included: The University of Birmingham’s Dr Mark Gaterell, Corinne Le Quéré - Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia and researcher at the British Antarctic Survey, Richard Davies from Marches Energy Agency, Malcolm Harbour MEP, Michael Fabricant MP, and many local leaders.

We hope the conference has inspired people to get involved in local climate change groups, such as Whittington and Fisherwick Environment Group or Low Carbon Lichfield. However, if you couldn’t make it to the conference, but are interested in become a ‘Climate Change Champion’, by joining a local action group, or setting one up in your area, please visit www.lichfielddc.gov.uk/gogreen or call the council on 01543 687545.

The Go Green conference was organised by Lichfield District Council, in partnership with Low Carbon Lichfield, Whittington and Fisherwick Environment Group, Midlands Co-operative, M6 Toll and Fairtrade.

*In the picture from left to right: Ruth Plant (LDC’s Director of Operational Services), Chris Cole (LDC’s Recycling & Street Scene Development Officer), Michael Fabricant MP, Mike Kinghan (Chair of WFEG), Robin Taylor (Founder of LoCaL), Malcolm Harbour MEP, Prof Corrine Le Quere (University of East Anglia), Cllr David S Smith (Leader of Lichfield District Council) Julie Walker (Director of Housing Homezone Living).Local people found out how to tackle climate change locally at the Go Green conference, which took place on Saturday 30 January

Lichfield District Council’s Go Green conference, which focused on how to reduce the district's carbon footprint, was a sell-out success.

Launching Chasewater Green Park Projects

At the conference, a range of climate change initiatives, which are all part of Chasewater Green Park Projects, will be outlined by Cllr David S. Smith. Find out more below:

Staffordshire County Council signs up to be a part of the award-winning Chasewater Green Park Projects

On Monday 18 January, the leader of Staffordshire County Council visited the District Council House, in Lichfield, to sign the Chasewater Green Park Project Memorandum of Understanding with Lichfield District Council.

Signing the Memorandum of Understanding means the county council will work with partners, including Lichfield District Council, to tackle climate change in practical ways.

Councillor Philip Atkins, Leader of Staffordshire County Council, said he was delighted to be involved in Chasewater Green Park Projects. Energy efficiency and climate change are key issues for everyone, and it is important that we work together to tackle this global challenge.

Chasewater Green Park Projects includes researching greener ways to energy manage historic buildings, such as Lichfield Cathedral, and looking at ways to create carbon neutral business parks.

By officially signing up to Chasewater Green Park Projects, the county council is showing its commitment to tackling climate change at a local level. I am pleased that this partnership initiative is growing every day, and that together we can work on practical solutions to the problems of energy inefficiency and how to reduce our carbon usage.

Partners involved in Chasewater Green Park Projects also include the University of Birmingham and Advantage West Midlands. A number of private partners including Lichfield Cathedral and Lingfield Developments are also involved and set to come on board

More about Lichfield District Council’s commitment to tackling climate change:

• Lichfield District Council took its first step towards tackling climate change when it signed the Nottingham Declaration on Climate Change in November 2001.
• Later in June 2008 Lichfield District Council signed up to the Staffordshire Declaration on Climate Change.
• The Council’s first practical commitment was demonstrated through two very significant initiatives; the early championing of kerbside recycling, and the sustainable design of the new theatre, the Lichfield Garrick.
• In March 2008 the council also launched the Warmer Homes Greener District initiative which has helped local homeowners to cut their energy bills by making their homes more energy efficient.
• In November 2009 Chasewater Green Park Projects won a Bronze Green Apple Award at the prestigious annual Green Apple Awards. The awards are run by the Green Organisation to celebrate environmental best practice by public and private enterprises.

This December representatives of the Criminal Justice Council visited Lichfield District Council to find out how the local authority and its partners are working to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour
 
Representatives from the prestigious Criminal Justice Council, which monitors and shapes how the country’s criminal justice system works, visited Lichfield District Council earlier this month. They came to hear how the council and its partners are delivering innovative approaches that are helping to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour locally, through the Local Strategic Partnership.

The Criminal Justice in Action event featured a series of case studies that illustrated how the partnership is working to prevent crime and the chances of criminals re-offending.
 
Councillor David S. Smith, Leader of Lichfield District Council, who represents local government on the Criminal Justice Council, said: “Councils, along with their partners, have a key role to play in preventing crime and anti-social behaviour locally. From using our licensing powers to create safer environments, through to providing positive activities for young people - who might otherwise get involved in criminal activity, what we do impacts the local community.  We were delighted to welcome representatives from the Criminal Justice Council. It was an opportunity to share a range of case studies on local projects, which highlight how working together locally can deliver tangible results."
 
Discussions also took place about the role of the courts and the opportunities for closer working relationships between the judiciary and local community teams. The impact of substance misuse was a key theme running throughout the event, and calls were made for more funding to be directed towards services that combat alcohol misuse.

“This was a rare, if not unique, opportunity for a wide range of policy makers, strategists and practitioners to meet and share an understanding of the local and national criminal justice landscape. To have been visited by such high profile people, who help set the national agenda on the way we fight and reduce crime, was a great compliment and shows that we are leading the way in working together to tackle this complex issue,” continued Cllr Smith.
 
The Criminal Justice System . . .
 
The purpose of the Criminal Justice System is to deliver justice for all, by convicting and punishing the guilty and helping them to stop offending, while protecting the innocent. It is responsible for detecting crime and bringing it to justice, and carrying out the orders of court, such as collecting fines, and supervising community and custodial punishment.

The Criminal Justice Council works:
 
•            to keep the criminal justice system under review
•           to advise the Government on the form and manner of implementation of criminal justice reforms and to make proposals to it for reform
•            to advise on the framing and implementation of a communication and education strategy for the criminal justice system