Paul Whitehouse, Steve Coogan and Lee Mack visited Bowness

Matt Staniek's Save Windermere Campaign hosted a large rally on The Glebe at midday on May 29. Lee Mack, Paul Whitehouse and Steve Coogan made appearances as supporters of Mr Staniek's campaign. 

Fellow comedian Joe Lycett was due to make an appearance but could not attend.

Crowds gathered for the Save Windermere campaign on The Glebe, Bowness (Image: Newsquest, Daniel Pye)

The campaign is related to sewage pollution in the Windermere catchment, which water company United Utilities says it is addressing by pumping large amounts of investment into its infrastructure to reduce storm overflows and by working with the Love Windermere partnership to promote scientific studies of the lake such as the Big Windermere Survey. 

Proceedings kicked off with carnival beats from Drum Nation. 

Drum Nation performed before Paul Whitehouse came on stage (Image: Newsquest, Daniel Pye)

A stage was set up to host the speakers and some music from LOWES. The band had just come back from Radio 1's Big Weekend in Dundee and the lead singer Evie Plumb is from Windermere. They played a stripped-back set mixing their own music and protest songs such as Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi. 

Paul Whitehouse MC'd the rally, inviting Lee Mack and Steve Coogan on stage. Paul Whitehouse did a documentary called Our Troubled Rivers, and in one episode he meets Matt Staniek. Lee Mack brought his daughter to make jokes about poo 'when things got too serious' during his speech. 

Steve Coogan and Matt Staniek talking about the campaign in front of Windermere (Image: Newsquest, Daniel Pye)

The Labour shadow secretary of state for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Jim McMahon made a statement on stage.

Liberal Democrat councillor Andrew Jarvis made a speech on behalf of the South Lakes MP Tim Farron, who wanted to appear but had a family bereavement. 

Lee Mack then introduced the 'past, present and future' of Windermere. The past was a representative of the Lord of Windermere David Clark who also could not attend. 

Lee Mack was interviewed by Channel 4 News. Many regional and national broadcast media organisations such as the BBC and GB News also came to the event (Image: Newsquest, Daniel Pye)

The future was Freya a local nine-year-old schoolgirl who gave a speech about Windermere. 

Finally, Matt Staniek represented the present, and he gave a fifteen-minute speech condemning sewage pollution and outlining his vision of the future for the lake.

In 2022, 246 days of untreated sewage discharged from storm overflows into the catchment according to freedom of information requests submitted by Save Windermere.

Many people gathered on The Glebe to show their support for Matt Staniek's campaign (Image: Newsquest, Daniel Pye)

A United Utilities spokesman said: “We completely understand the strength of feeling and we share the determination to improve our operations and their contribution to the overall health of Windermere. Many of us live and work in the local community and we all care passionately about the lake and the work we do on behalf of our customers.

“Our £45m investment has delivered real improvements and since 2015 we have halved the amount of phosphorus that is now entering the lake. 

READ MORE: Paul Whitehouse visits Windermere for new BBC show

“We know there is more to be done and the £19m we have recently secured in accelerated funding means we can make a start in the next two years at reducing storm overflow operations at Elterwater pumping station, Ambleside, Hawkshead and Near Sawrey wastewater treatment works.  These projects are part of a wider £41m investment in the Windermere catchment that will be delivered by 2030."