On Sunday evening, after the culmination of internal fitments works to our Ladybridge Hall base, (post-actual building refurbishment works had finished), the team formally occupied its new HQ / base premises, with the parking of two of our Landrover Ambulances into our buildings spacious double bay garage.
We thus became fully operational from facilities, that for those of us old enough to remember the “Overdale” early days, could never have thought of in our wildest dreams.
We now have a very large and fully equipped main lecture room, a spacious control and communications area, a kitchen area, and an equipment-cum-small lecture room, alongside a team archive / library area, and of course our double bay garage.
The establishment of this base facility, with all grateful thanks to GMAS, could not have happened without the tremendous personal involvement of Tony McNally, our Team Chairman, who over the last two months has worn the hats of Project Co-Ordinator, Project Liaison Officer, Project Manager and Clerk of Works ! …and his steadfast group of team members, who took over when the builders left, to paint, decorate and fit out the building.
Phase 2 of our works are due to start very shortly, with the conversion of a large adjacent single story stone building, into a combined toilet and vehicle washing block.

So excellent are our facilities here, that GMAS are now using our Base / HQ as additional training rooms to compliment their extensive Training facilities within their Ladybridge Hall Ambulance Training School Complex!
We meanwhile remain committed to our excellent and convenient, garage facilities at Bolton Fire Station, gratefully provided by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, where our other two Landrover Ambulances are based. In fact with the removal of items in storage from our now long gone Overdale base, from our Bolton Fire Station base to our Ladybridge base, we are now able to garage our Control Trailer at Bolton Fire Station alongside the two Landrovers.

With the above move into Ladybridge, the team vacated its occupancy of the Carnauld Metal Box site, gratefully provided by CMB for a great many years now, where we have enjoyed secure parking facilities (undercover for a short while), and excellent support. At this stage it is timely to thank all at CMB (the plant is facing imminent closure) particularly the Security Staff who have put up with our comings and goings at all times of the day and night, always with a friendly smile.

So we now enter a new chapter in the teams development.
The official opening of our Ladybridge Hall Base / HQ is to take place on Sunday 25th April at 13:30 hours, with Derek Cartwright, GMAS Director of Operations, kindly agreeing to perform the opening ceremony, followed by a Prayer of Dedication by team member, The Reverend Mike Thomason. The base will be open from 12:00 hrs on the day, with a display of our four Landrover Ambulances, our current Search and Rescue equipment, and of course our team members. A buffet lunch will follow for all our invited guests, to this a very important day in the teams’ calendar (and history).