Incident 16/2009

With wintry conditions persisting into the early evening, and with more snow showers forecast for later into the evening, at 18:30 this evening the team placed its 4 Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances on standby at our Ladybridge Hall base to be available in case of need, on behalf of NWAS (Lancashire) and NWAS (Greater Manchester) areas.

The team remained in constant liaison with both Ambulance controls and Lancashire Constabulary and Greater Manchester Police controls regarding any need on its services.

Our colleagues in Rossendale & Pendle MRT and Oldham MRT were also on crewed vehicle standby for similar taskings.

At 20:07 our BM2 vehicle with 4 crew members was despatched to assist a snow-stranded NWAS (Manchester) Rapid Response Vehicle in the Bryn area of Wigan.

With road conditions steadily improving throughout the evening including the majority of moorland roads in our area being clear, in consultation with both ambulance controls the team stood down from standby at our base at 23:00 to go back to normal pager contact.

In total 13 full team callout members were available at our base this evening.