United Utilities staff spread festive cheer at Ambleside park run

United Utilities staff helped spread some festive cheer at the Rothay Park Run in Ambleside on Saturday. 

A team of volunteers from the company handed out mince pies and water bottles for runners ahead of Christmas. 

United Utilities has recently started a project in Miller Field.  The work was set to impact an area of land used by the Rothay Park Run, so the company has worked with the event organisers to create a new route and ensure it can keep running during the works. 

The work at Miller Field is in preparation for a scheme where United Utilities is proposing to build two new storage tanks which will hold 4,500m3 of stormwater – the equivalent of nearly two Olympic sized swimming pools. This will help to improve water quality in Windermere by reducing the number of times that the storm overflow at the site operates during periods of heavy rain.

Ursula Brendling, Joint Event Director for Rothay Park parkrun said: "We really appreciate the efforts the team at United Utilities have gone to in order to continue our Ambleside parkrun. It is fantastic for our locals and visitors to be able to walk to Rothay Park and either run or walk and increase their fitness. We would have been devastated to lose it as it is such a massive benefit to all our local businesses and community."

Kate Stark, Area Engagement Lead for Cumbria at United Utilities, said: “It’s been great working with the Rothay Parkrun team. We know how much people value the event and it was great to take part on Saturday with colleagues as many of us are keen runners and live locally so we’ve been really keen to ensure that the community can keep going while we also get on with work which will help improve water quality.”

United Utilities is investing more than £200m over the next five years to ensure wastewater is treated to the highest standards possible as well as significantly reducing discharges from the six storm overflows that discharge into the Lake.