Life truly is a rollercoaster for a Cumbrian firm and it is hitting the global heights this week with a new accreditation.

Westlakes Engineering, which has offices at West Lakes Science and Technology Park, near Whitehaven, Manchester and Preston, has a safety team dedicated to inspecting fairground and amusement park rides.

They travel across the world to carry out inspections at attractions including the American Legoland franchise, Legoland in Japan and other parks in South Africa, Austraila and Singapore.

This week, they became the first inspection body in the world to achieve a new accreditation.

Tom Elsworth, of Westlakes Engineering, led the work to gain the standard.

He said: "We are the first and only inspection body in the world to have gained this accreditation. This is testament to our competence and the diligence of our inspections and procedures."

It is also responsible for the safety checks of the design and commissioning of Blackpool Pleasure Beach's new Icon ride, due to open this spring.

It is the first rollercoaster at Blackpool for several years.

Doug Dadswell, who leads the rides team, said: "The team here are not only very keen engineers but are also dedicated rollercoaster enthusiasts and are very much looking forward to riding a coaster they have been involved with."

The team has been specialising in this line of work since its formation at Allott & Lomax in Sale in the 1980s.

Mr Dadswell brought the whole team to Westlakes Engineering in November 2015 and they are now an integral part of the practice.

Westlakes was founded in 2004 in West Cumbria, working mainly at the Sellafield nuclear plant, then spread nationwide doing property work after opening its Manchester office in 2009.