Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team vehicle appeal

Aim

Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team urgently need to raise funds for a new Incident Command Vehicle.

Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team is fundraising for a new Incident Command Vehicle, urgently needed to replace our aging and unreliable equipment.

We need to raise £80,000 to cover the purchase and conversion costs of the new vehicle, via donations from the public. Please help us out with a donation using this CrowdFunder page. 

About Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team

Swaledale MRT is a 100% volunteer-run charity, which exists to save life and limb in the northern part of the Yorkshire Dales. 

The team is on call to use their unique skills, techniques and equipment to rescue injured members of the public, assist the police with missing person searches and support the ambulance service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Please watch our video above to see some of the work that we do, and share this page on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. 

Further information is available on the Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team website. Or contact us at: [email protected].

What are we fundraising for?

We are fundraising for a new Incident Command Vehicle. This is a specially converted vehicle that operates alongside our existing 4WD ambulance fleet and provides a crucial part of our ability to provide our vital 24/7 rescue service. 

An Incident Command Vehicles does the following: 

• Acts as our communications and IT hub and liaison point with other emergency services.
• Helps transport team members to call-outs.
• Has built in welfare facilities for team members responding to to long-duration incidents. 
• Carries additional emergency equipment for specialist rescues.
• Enables us to respond to and manage operations more effectively and ultimately provide better care for casualties.

An Incident Command Vehicle really earns its keep on the very long, complex incidents that we attend – for instance, a long search and rescue, or a flooding event. These can go on for multiple days, during which the Incident Controllers have to safely manage, and look after, many teams of rescuers who are operating over a wide geographical area in extremely challenging conditions.

How much do we need to raise? 

We are aiming to raise £80,000 to cover the full cost of the new vehicle. Where will this money go? 

First, is the cost of the base vehicle. This is a standard Volkswagen Transporter long wheelbase van.

The vehicle then needs a comprehensive internal fit-out that includes seating, refreshment facilities for rescuers (recognising that the response to a major incident sometimes goes on for several days), communications and IT equipment, ability to connect to power or a generator, safety equipment and secure storage.

The exterior of the vehicle has to go through the full ’emergency services’ treatment, which includes blue lights & siren, and high-visibility livery.

This is a bespoke conversion that needs to ‘just work’, every time, without fail. We have therefore worked with several different specialist suppliers & converters of emergency vehicles to compare quotes, and have selected a competitive supplier with an excellent reputation for doing high-reliability emergency-vehicle conversions.

If you're interested, please have a look at the additional information on the Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team website. 

This project successfully funded on 9th December 2020