Scheme completed to stop flooding

A £500,000 scheme to try to prevent future flooding in a South Derbyshire village has been officially completed.

More than 100 homes in Hatton were flooded when the River Dove overflowed its banks in November 2000.

A one-mile length of the Salt Brook has been widened, along with the upgrading of a culvert and replacing footbridges and access from fields.

It was a complicated legal operation, with permission being negotiated with ten separate land owners.

Hatton councillor Barrie Whyman, who is also leader of South Derbyshire District Council, said the work's completion will come as a relief to villagers, who have lived with the fear of a repeat of the floods.