Club meeting hears of the fine work of Holme Valley Mountain Rescue

Six members of Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team gave an interesting, informative talk to over 20 members and friends at our August club meeting. The group needs to raise over £60,000 each year and our raffle proceeds were donated to the team.

At the end of the presentation, club members had a look at the team's control van and were particularly interested in the range of radio communication which included links to the various emergency services many of which use DMR as well as VHF.

The team is volunteer-based and based in Marsden. There are 60 members who are on call to assist those in difficulty, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, whatever the weather – plus a number who are non-qualified trainees, helpers and support members.

Their area of operations roughly comprises the southern half of West Yorkshire, and the team operates under the auspices of West Yorkshire Police.

It is also regularly called in by Yorkshire Ambulance Service to assist with casualties in remote or difficult to access areas. Such incidents may be less than 100m from a paved road, but terrain or conditions require specialist equipment and techniques – or just strength of numbers – to extricate a casualty.

The team’s base, Emergency House, is a former fire station building, bought in 2015, which provides garaging for three emergency vehicles, as well as a control room, training facilities, a small kitchen and storage and drying facilities for specialist rescue equipment.

Unlike other European countries, Mountain Rescue Services within the UK are free of charge, available to all and provided by well trained volunteers who are called out by and assist the police.

The Holme Valley Mountain Rescue Team has an average of 66 callouts per year. Its immediate area of response is the southern half of West Yorkshire. Although most incidents involve search and rescue on the moors and hills of West Yorkshire many incidents occur in rural lowland areas such as parks, woods and farmland.

We are very grateful to this splendid organisation for coming to speak to us.