At 19.29hrs this evening during a period of snowfall throughout the Greater Manchester area, we were paged by NWAS (Manchester) regards going to standby in case the road conditions worsened causing problems for their Ambulances progressing to incidents.

In consultation with NWAS (Manchester) Emergency Control Centre’s Manager, our Team Leader called out an appropriate small number of team members to crew our 4x Team Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, based on standby at our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ.

12x team members spent the evening on standby, as the snowfall continued along with falls of sleet and hail.

As the evening progressed a slight rise in temperatures saw road conditions considerably improve and at 23.30hrs the team was stood down by NWAS (Manchester). All four of our Landrover Mountain Rescue Ambulances are equipped in winter with snowchains, towing strops, one metal shovel each and five snow shovels each, whilst two of our four vehicles also have a front mounted winch, wheel blocks, winch and towing strops.