NORTH Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team launches its building fund this week having successfully obtained planning permission to convert the industrial unit it purchased in 2013 into a professional rescue base.

The team of 30 volunteers rescue people lost or injured on Dartmoor and carry out searches for missing people across Devon.

David Stoneman, Team Leader, said: "This has been a fairly average year for us. We’ve assisted with 23 rescues ranging from a walker on Dartmoor with an injured leg who couldn’t be reached by helicopter because of the bad weather to a two day search looking for a missing lady around Bideford."

The rescue team is now aiming to raise £75,000 to create drying and maintenance facilities for all its technical equipment and a training room for its volunteers who train every week.

Talking about the Okehampton rescue base, David Stoneman commented: "It’s an exciting time for us. Like all rescue teams across the country we are now having to be better trained, not just in first aid skills but also in new skills like water rescue. We’ve also got to know how to use all the computerised search programmes. Having a fully equipped rescue base is essential if we are to keep up to date and continue helping injured or missing people."

Members of the team will be at Crediton’s Tesco store at Wellparks on Sunday, December 6, to raise some of the much needed funds.