UU mislead over bed levels
Researchers at Friends of Crummock are scratching their heads over the conflicting statements made by the Utilities giant in their planning submission to drain Crummock.
At open days and public meetings during 2022-23, United Utilities insisted that the lake level would be reverting to how it was before the first dam was installed in 1878. On their website they say: “Crummock Water and the outfall to the River Cocker will be reinstated to what is believed to be natural bed level”. In their Planning statement UU say in their executive summary: “The intention is to return Crummock Water to its previous water level prior to the weir being installed”
Buttermere, Loweswater and Lorton Parish Councils wrote an open letter the the valley community affected by the Crummock scheme questioning historic levels at Crummock. In a series of slides (see link below) UU responded with the following statement:
“The exact bed level prior to construction of the timber weir in 1879 is unknown” (see P9).
United Utilities website April 2025
We looked to Professor Angus Winchester, Emeritus Professor of History at Lancaster University. Prof. Winchester was brought up in Cockermouth and is author of ‘The Language of the Landscape’ a history of the valley.
He sent through pictures taken by early local photographer Frances Mary Peile in 1889 and commented:
“The photo of the footbridge strikes me as particularly interesting, as it appears to show the wooden weir which predated the present masonry structure and shows that the level of the lake had not seemingly been raised by that initial weir.”
copyright Josephine Wigham
So why is the confusion? Documents buried in the United Utilities website show that they need to remove the dam to along with their responsibilities under the reservoirs act. This essential piece of legislation has been in place since 1975 and since then there has been no loss of life from a dam bursting.
Dropping the lake level to the bottom of the weir appears to be purely a cost saving exercise for United Utilities. It will artificially lower the lake to a level far below any historic level.
