Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team hits halfway target for "vital" new vehicle as fundraising continues

The team of volunteers need to raise £80,000 for a new Incident Command Vehicle to help carry out their life saving work.

By Sophie McCandlish

Published 6th Jan 2021, 10:21 BST

Updated 6th Jan 2021, 10:22 BST

The Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team, which is run by a group of 40 dedicated volunteers, is raising money to replace its Incident Command Trailer (ICT), which its members said has been “a vital piece of equipment for over 15 years”.

Steve Clough, the team’s rescue controller, described the ICT as the “operational nerve centre” on call-outs.

“It houses our communications and IT equipment but time has taken its toll,” he said. “It is difficult to manoeuvre, requires specialist driving skills, is time consuming to set up and is requiring more and more maintenance.

“After careful consideration we concluded the best solution is to replace our trailer with a new Incident Command Vehicle which will offer greater operational flexibility and reliability and help with our life-saving work.”

The team, which covers 680 square miles of mainly upland fells, has been running its campaign to fund a new ICT since November last year and its recently closed online campaign raised £20,000.

Mr Clough said the team has had a further £11,000 in donations outside of the crowdfunding campaign and £10,000 from a grant application tipping them just over the halfway point.

“Our fundraising efforts are continuing into the new year,” Mr Clough added.

“Anyone who would like to donate can do so through our JustGiving page.”