Visited our website and wish to help the team?

Well we have many wants on our wish list from the expensive to the not so expensive!

Replacment of our three computer systems
We currently use three computers, 2 at our base & 1 in our control trailer. for such things as map printing, MRMap GPS tracking, the Teams website updates, MR Inicident reporting and such administartive duties. All three computers were purchased 2nd hand and at least 4 years old, as technology & maps have grown in recent years, we are currently finding these computers running at their limit and we need to upgrade both the technology within the computers and also to enable them to run the latest mapping programmes which we exclusively get from various suppliers - free of charge. Approximate costs to replace all three computers and associated software is in the region of £1,500.

The purchase of portable GPS tracking radios
With the succesful introduction of the vehicle based GPS tracking radios, purchased with great help by groups such as The East Lancashire Mark Benevolent Fund, The late Jenni Fields & various personal donations via Dave Healey, our Team radio Communications Officer. Whilst working with other Teams, who are already equipped with these radios & the personal property of Team member Dave Healey, we can see the fantastic advantage of these radios on many levels - knowing where the members are, being able to accurately plot 'evidence' that may be found & also plot and know the location of any casualty find. As ever this equipment is not cheap and we envisage the total cost of this for 6 GPS radios being in the regionof £3,500.

Securing our future at our base locations!
At the present moment we enjoy excellent headquarters, base and garage facilities at the North West Ambulance Service Headquarters, Ladybridge Hall site. Other garage facilities are located at Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (Bolton Central) Fire Station. Whilst both of these locations are secure for the immediate future, the team needs to seek ways to consolidate & secure its position at both facilities.

Control vehicle
At present, the team operates a completely refurbished Control trailer, which came into service June 2005. This trailer, as with our previous trailer, fulfills adequately our Control needs, but has limitations in terms of its overall internal space and the obvious feature of not being self-propelled (neither of these features detract from the usefulness of our new trailer). However, the Team does have long-standing requirement to replace this trailer with a C3 vehicle (Command, Control, and Communications) which would obviously allow our control to be self-propelled and would enable us to mount a more appropriate internal fit within. Our options include the conversion of an existing vehicle (probably based on an ambulance design), through to a brand new purchase, coach built vehicle. Costs across these options are in the region of £40,000 to £70,000.

Replacement of our 1999 purchased Land Rover Defender Mountain Rescue Ambulances
Our Bolton Mobiles 1, 2 and 3 were purchased together thanks to the National Lottery (BM1 and 2) and Ellen Sykes bequest (BM3) and in August 2010 will be 11 years old. All three vehicles have been maintained in a excellent condition and for almost all their life have been garaged indoors. The team is now seeking the replacement of all three Land Rovers ideally by Autumn 2010 with new vehicles. The current cost of a new purchase "Mountain Rescue Ambulance" specification Land Rover is in the region of £42,000, so the team is looking to raise a substantial sum of money to replace these three vital vehicles.

Water search and rescue equipment
At the present time the team has a small number of swift water trained personnel and a small canoe/kayak water search and rescue unit. These team members currently use their own equipment for team purposes, ie dry suits, floatation aids, life-lines and helmets. The team has a need to provide these members with team issued equipment, to ensure commonality and ready identification. The current purchase cost of this equpiment as at 1st December 2009 is in the region of £5,000 in total.

Mountain Rescue Stretchers
The team currently uses as its main Mountain Rescue stretchers two Troll Alphin and two Bell stretchers (a modified Mark II and a Mark III). All four of these stretchers have been in team use for some time now and have been constantly maintained, fully serviced and upgraded where necessary. However these stretchers represent stretcher technology in the case of the Troll of the 1980s and in the case of the Bell the late 1970s. Newer, and more importantly, lighter weight Mountain Rescue stretchers now exist or are under the final stages of development prior to production. Although our current 4 stretchers are adequate for purpose their weight is a big consideration and the purchase of the newer much lighter weight stretchers now available is desired within the team. The total cost of 4 replacement stretchers would be in the region of £8,000.

And of course our day-to-day running costs (£72.00 a day!).