Our skilled tradesmen and technicians ensure speed, efficiency and expertise. We provide innovative, flexible, safe and sustainable spaces to improve our students' experience of university.
Facts and Information
The Estates team is responsible for all aspects of maintenance on the university's 38-hectare estate.
This comprises more than 108 academic, administrative and social buildings together with the halls of residence. In addition to our routine and statutory work, the service deals with nearly 11,000 additional maintenance requests each year.
What we do
Managing the sites of our various campuses is a huge task for our Estates team.
Responsibilities of the team in the course of a year include:
- 11,000+ reactive maintenance tasks
- 600 preventative maintenance tasks
- 1,770+ tonnes of waste removed
- 1,000+ room set ups
- 5,600 fire alarm tests
- 500+ fire escape route checks
- 48,000+ emergency light tests
- 2,000+ water system tests
- 3,000+ fire door checks
- 150 courier journeys
- 20+ hectares of grounds maintenance
- 100+ office moves per year
- 100+ keys cut
- 190 microwave leakage tests
- 21,000 PAT tests
- 1,000 fixed electrical tests
- 5,000 external light checks
- 500+ meters read
We service:
- 115 gas boilers
- 30 lifts
- 90+ air conditioning units
- 30+ air handling systems
- 500+ extract fans
- 60+ automatic doors and shutters
- 1,100 fire extinguishers
- 200+ CCTV cameras
- 14 lightning protection systems
- 5 semi-automatic movable walls
- 50+ building management systems
We manage:
- 30+ service contracts
- 3 high voltage substations
- 3 low voltage substations
- 3 emergency generators
- 2.3km of underground gas supplies
- 8km of underground power supplies
We are here to help
If you experience any maintenance faults (such as flickering lights, broken heating, faulty air-conditioning, blocked drains, damaged furniture, leaking roofs), they can be reported through our Richmond portal.
For staff: An Icon is on your desktop which will take you to the support screen where you can log your calls.
For students: A tile has been added to the Student Hub - this will take you to the support screen where you can log your calls.
In addition, the Estates & Property department is also responsible for carrying out other minor works required within the University, for example fitting new shelves, space alteration, and installing new electrical outlets or light fittings.
If you encounter a problem or need alterations to your workspace, you can contact our Estates & Property team for your campus:
Lancaster Ext 5880; Carlisle Ext 6394; Ambleside Ext 5274.
You can also email estatesandproperty@cumbria.ac.uk
When should you contact us?
If you experience any maintenance faults (such as flickering lights, broken heating, faulty air-conditioning, blocked drains, damaged furniture, leaking roofs), then please log a task on the Richmond Portal.
Emergency and Urgent Maintenance Requests
For urgent problems which cannot wait until the next working morning to be actioned, contact security: Lancaster - 01524 590800; Carlisle - 01228 616234; Ambleside - 015394 30274.
The security team will then contact the on-call staff to deal with the problem.
Minor Works Requests
Minor Works is a term used to describe changes, upgrades, additions, alterations to buildings and infrastructure. This is not to be confused with maintenance which covers repairs to and up-keep of existing building elements. For example, minor works would involve relocating a desk or tidying cables, whereas maintenance would be fixing damaged electrical cables and items.