New search and rescue team created for Anglesey to 'ease burden'

Tryfan, as seen from the base of Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team's base

A search team for Anglesey is being created in a bid to ease pressure on neighbouring mountain rescue teams.

It comes as a senior police officer said teams should look to use professional fundraisers to help meet the cost of any rise in call-outs.

Gareth Pritchard, deputy chief constable of North Wales Police, said adventure tourism and missing people searches will increase demands on them.

Wales has 13 mountain, lowland and cave rescue team, all of them volunteers.

The new team will be the first based on Anglesey.

Mr Pritchard, who is the national policing lead for search and rescue across Wales and England, said he has been in discussions over the summer on ways of putting teams on a more secure financial footing.

Search and rescue teams in Wales, all of them independent charities, have been busy this year with volunteers covering Snowdon in Gwynedd, recording 34 call-outs in August alone.

One way of easing the burden on some of the north Wales teams would be to create a separate, lowland team for Anglesey - something BBC Radio Wales' Eye on Wales programme has learnt is already in hand.

North Wales Police deputy chief constable Gareth Pritchard (centre) at the joint police and fire services control room at St Asaph, Denbighshire

Phil Benbow, chairman of North Wales Mountain Rescue Association, which includes six mountain rescue teams, told the programme: "For me it seems a reasonable thing to do.

"If we can establish a lowland search team on Anglesey, who'll have the same skill set in terms of search as the other north Wales teams, that would help both ourselves and North Wales Police.

"It just seems to me a logical step that we can supplement and complement what the mountain teams do by having a lowland search team work alongside us."

Mr Pritchard said he is urging search and rescue teams across Wales and England to professionalise the way they fundraise.

"They have gained a lot of money by shaking buckets on mountains on busy weekends and that does generate significant income, but the demands on the teams is increasing," he said.

"The need for their equipment to be at the right specification, and it's expensive equipment, the training requirements... all costs money."

"Oggie" base, the base of Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation

Such teams do have some government money - since April this year they have been able to claim back VAT, while the Welsh government gives £25,000 a year to help cover some health and safety costs.

Welsh teams also share in the £250,000 which the UK government has awarded to 75 teams across Britain this year for training and equipment, but not running costs.

Meanwhile, Ogwen Valley - one of the larger and more established mountain rescue teams - has started paying its team members 30p a mile on call-outs.

It is aimed at ensuring team members find it "cost neutral" if they attend an increasing number of midweek call-outs.

The mountain rescue team has estimated it needs to raise £60,000 per year to meet its costs.

• Eye on Wales, BBC Radio Wales, 12:30 GMT, Sunday 25 October