The £5.5million repair work to Chasewater reservoir will be able to withstand a storm three times the strength of the devastating floods experienced in 2007.

The dam is now beginning to refill and council bosses say that they are expecting to see the reservoir levels back to normal by the summer of 2013.

Clive Thomson, Staffordshire County Council’s head of specialist services has revealed that the dam has been strengthened to the extent that it could take the strength of a “one in 10,000 storm.”

He said: “The dam is as safe as it is possible to make it and we will now be able to monitor its condition in far greater detail than was previously possible.

“Some water will always pass through an earth dam, but we are now able to keep a very close eye on how much and ensure this is not weakening the structure.”

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