Team attends “Get ready for Winter in Bolton” event

Today at the kind invitation of Bolton Council, the Bolton MRT attended the ‘Get ready for Winter in Bolton’ event, held on Victoria Square in front of the Town Hall in Bolton.

Organised by The Civil Contingencies Unit at Bolton Council, todays event was set to coincide with the launch of a national campaign by the Cabinet Office – an initiative involving Government departments, various agencies and the voluntary sector giving people information about how to keep safe and warm during the winter months and encouraging people to be resilient in their planning. Its purpose was also to demonstrate how all the partner agencies work together meeting some of the duties of the Civil Contingencies Act including warning and informing the public and co-operation and information sharing between partner agencies.

The link the “Get Ready for Winter” website, hosted by the Met Office is:-

www.metoffice.gov.uk/barometer/get-ready-for-winter

The event was officially opened by the Mayor of Bolton at 10.00hrs, with all participants having arrived to set up in the square from 09.00hrs.

We attended with one of our four Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances and our Minibus Ambulance, also setting up a search and rescue equipment display alongside both of our vehicles.

Eight Bolton MRT Call Out list operational members attended, including our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE.

Team members Dave Marsh with his Trainee Drowned Victim Search Dog ‘Sasha,’ and Paul Chisholm with his potential Trainee search Dog ‘Bella,’ both attended, alongside much appreciated help from Daniel Cook, the very young son of team member Dave Cook (Webmaster; representing the team of then future!)

The event which ended at 15.00hrs, saw a huge number of the public visiting our particular display, and the usual number of children (Nearly always followed by their mums, dads, grand parents etc) sitting in our vehicles and turning on the blue lights!

With sincere thanks to all the members of the public who so kindly and so generously asked if they could make a donation to the team, we raised the wonderful sum of £168.90p in donations.

The following organisations were known to be present today;

• NWAS HART; Who incidentally were called out twice from the event.
• NWAS (Manchester) Rapid Response vehicle and Bolton town centre Cycle Response Unit.
• Greater Manchester Police; Patrol Vehicle and Officer.
• GMP PCSO Officers and their public safety display.
• GMFRS; Water Rescue Unit Appliance and Rescue Boat from Heywood Fire Station.
• Salvation Army; Mobile Catering Vehicle, which did a great job on this bitterly cold day keeping us warm with an endless supply of hot drinks.
• Environment Agency; Land Rover and Rigid Inflatable Boat (With Environment Agency Officer Steve Berry on hand – a former Bolton MRT member)
• United Utilities.
• British Red Cross; Fire Emergency Support Service specialist vehicle.
• Bolton NHS; Patient (CBRN) Decontamination display.
• 96.5 Bolton FM Radio Station; Thanks for the frequent mentions of Bolton MRT.
• Bolton Council; Civil Contingencies Unit Officers, a Snowplough / gritter vehicle from their Highways Department.
• North West 4×4 Response.
• Various public health and safety stalls and agencies.

Overall for the Bolton MRT the day was a great success, as it was for the other organisations and agencies present, and given the theme of the event, it was perhaps appropriate that the weather was very definitely bitterly cold!

The Bolton MRT would like to thank all at Bolton Council Civil Contingencies Unit for their invitation to us to attend, and Bolton Council for the excellent lunch bags provided to all the exhibiters.