The team needs more space for its vehicles and equpiment

A mountain rescue team is appealing to the public to support it in its bid to get cash to extend its base.

Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team is a finalist in the Jewson Building Better Communities competition, and is now in with the chance of winning a share of a £100,000 fund.

Team spokesman Ian Hugill said: “To have been nominated and shortlisted is a great achievement, but it’s important people get behind the project and vote so that we can secure the funds to do vital work in the community.

“As we enter our 50th year our objectives, to ‘relieve suffering and distress amongst persons affected by accidents or natural hazards on the North York Moors, or any other place if requested’ have never been more true.

“With an operational membership of 40, averaging 60 callouts per year and providing ever more complex rescue techniques and solutions we find we have outgrown our rescue base. Located in Snainton on the edge of the North York Moors and central to the community we serve, this has been our home for almost half of our existence.

“After considering a number of options we have taken the brave and ambitious decision to expand into otherwise unusable land to the rear of the existing property. We believe this is the most sustainable solution and minimises our impact on the environment while maintaining our contact with the village.”

Mr Hugill said that, as well as garaging the existing vehicles the extension will allow the team to house a new 4×4 ambulance it is buying along with new water rescue equipment and boats. It will also extend the training room enable them to build a drying room for the range of equipment which inevitably gets wet and dirty during callouts.

“As a charity that receives no direct funding and with annual running costs in the order of £40,000 this decision to expand was not taken lightly,” he said. “We are continually humbled by the generosity of the local community.

“However asking them to fund such expansion is a big ask and the reason why we submitted an application to the Jewson Building Better Communities appeal.”

As part of the project, Jewson asked communities to nominate a project to win a share of the £100,000, which could be spent on anything from a new roof on the village hall to a much needed coat of paint for a long-forgotten public space.

The company’s managing director David Fenton said: “Throughout our 179-year history, we’ve played an active part in the communities in which we operate, but with Building Better Communities we’re taking that a step further by giving local people the support they need to make a genuine difference to where they live.

“Now the shortlist has been decided, residents within North Yorkshire must get behind projects in order for them to win a share of the prize, helping to improve the community.”
Anyone wanting to vote for the Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team headquarters expansion and do so online at the project website.