Today marked a very special moment for the team when for only the second time in the teams history, we placed an order for three brand new Land Rover Mountain Rescue Ambulances, at an estimated total purchase price of some £130,000.00, the culmination of some major fundraising that has taken place within the team over the recent last two years, aided by a truely wonderful single donation of £40,000.00 from the East Lancashire Mark Benevolent Fund.

Seven team members consisting of our Team Chairman Ken Oakes, President Bob Hutchinson, Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE, Training Officer Elaine Gilliland, Vehicles Officer Chris Greenhalgh, Neil Aspinall and Trainee Team member Martin Banks all journeyed in our BM5 Minibus to the Greenod, Cumbria, workshops of Crake International, part of Lakeland Land Rover, Torver, Coniston, to place the order.

At Crake International we were met by Colin Todd, Special Vehicles Manager and Paul Smith, LakeLand Land Rover Sales Manager, who both made us truely welcome.

Colin Todd astounded us with his very intimate and comprehensive knowledge of all things Land Rover, particularly with regards to Mountain Rescue Land Rovers. (Two new vehicles for Swaledale MRT were in build in his workshops, as well as the many vehicles he has built for Lake District Mountain Rescue Teams)
The group present, after much discussion within the team, also discussed and finalised the exact vehicle specifications, fixtures and fittings we required, with Colin Todd of Crake International offering much advice.

The team placed a deposit with Lakeland Land Rovers for the supply of three new Land Rover Defender 110 Utility vehicles which will then undergo a major internal and external conversion programme to create the latest generation of Mountain Rescue vehicle.

All three vehicles are due to be delivered into Bolton MRT team service around February 2011, keep watching the website for news updates on the build progress of our new vehicles.

On the way up to the Lake District the group also took the opportunity to call in at the Garstang Base / HQ of Bowland Pennine MRT, where we were met by BPMRT long serving member Simon Harris, who demonstrated their new Control Vehicle, which is to the same overall specification we require, and have decided to purchase as part of our new team vehicle fleet.

Simon very kindly offered to send to the Bolton MRT their detailed working drawings and specification details for their Control Vehicle to assit us in our purchase and commisioning of such a vehicle.

again keep watching our website for news of this exciting development.

(Please also see website ’news’ items dated Sunday 13th June and Monday 14th June 2010)