Tonight’s routine weekly evening training session will see team members taking part in a search scenario involving a missing hill walker on Spitlers / Redmonds Edge, Anglezarke.

Team members will be despatched to search various paths and tracks leading up to to Spitlers and Redmonds Edge, and the eastern flank of Great Hill.

Our trainee and operational search dogs (Air Scenting and Trailing respectively) will also be playing an active role, as will two members of Cheshire SART, (Their Team Leader and their Chairman)

As part of this exercise we will be ‘firing off’ our older stock of red mini flare / distress flares.

All firings will take place between 20.00hrs and 22.30hrs this evening, and may be visible from quite a distance away, as team members practice firing them along all their search routes.

We routinely notify both Greater Manchester Police and Lancashire Constabulary Control Rooms when we undertake exercises of this nature, to prevent any misinterpretations by well meaning members of the public who may call in (quite correctly) such flare sightings.

We also routinely contact the National Police Air Service, Warton and Barton, of such flare practices, as their aircraft if airborne can see such from a considerable distance away.

So if you are driving between Belmont Village and Abbey Village this evening along the A675, keep a watch out for red mini flares lighting up the moorland skyline.