Hundreds of people attend illegal rave near Lichfield

The floor of Brookhay Woods was left strewn with debris including nitrus oxide canisters, balloons and bottles.

An officer was spat on as more than 1,000 revellers attended an illegal rave, police have said.

Crowds descended on Brookhay Woods, near Lichfield, on Saturday night, creating a noisy disturbance and a "mile" of rubbish, locals said.

Staffordshire Police attempted to disperse those attending by slowing down traffic on the nearby A38.

Jordan Jewkes, 18, of Medina, Tamworth, has been charged with assaulting a police officer by spitting.

Pictures taken on Sunday morning show the ground in Brookhay Woods strewn with cans, bottles, nitrous oxide (laughing gas) canisters, and balloons.

'Litter for a mile'

One local, who lives close to Brookhay Woods, where the rave was held, said she had never seen a mess like it in her life.

One resident said she had never come across a mess like it anywhere in her life

"It was a carpet of bottles, cartridges, cans, bottles filled with various coloured liquids, bags, clothes.... the biggest concentration was by and in the stream in the woods but there is litter for a mile or so radius," she said.

She added a friend of hers had been kept awake all night by the commotion and that a young man they came across picking up his car had shown no remorse for the mess or the disturbance to residents.

Abandoned cars were being removed on Sunday morning

There was litter for a mile or so radius, a resident said

Cars left abandoned at the site are now being removed.

"An estimated 500-plus people attended who have shown a complete disregard for public safety and the current Covid-19 lockdown restrictions," police said earlier before revising the estimated attendance to more than 1,000.

Officers were still turning people away who were arriving as they closed the event down.

Bottles can be seen lying in the stream that runs through the woods

The traffic on the A38 was slowed as a precaution, police said, and BTP officers were called out because there is a railway line nearby.

Mr Jewkes is also charged with being drunk and disorderly and will appear before Cannock Magistrates' Court on Wednesday.

The event took place at the same time as two large illegal raves held in Greater Manchester where a man died of a suspected overdose, three people were stabbed and a woman was raped.

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