THE handing out of Olympic medals starts in London this weekend, but the North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team has announced that 30 of its members have been awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal.

The team was formed in 1969 to provide voluntary mountain rescue assistance to the police and community.

On average they attend 25 incidents each year, not just on Dartmoor but across their wider operational remit, from the Cornish border to the Blackdown Hills. It is one of four that makes up the Dartmoor Rescue Group.

This has been a busy year for the team, with their effort to move into a new centre on the Exeter Road Industrial Estate.

The team needs to raise £190,000 to buy the centre, conduct legal and building work and fully equip the new premises.

A total of 450,000 Diamond Jubilee medals are being awarded to all members of the armed forces, operational members of the prison service, and emergency services personnel who have been in paid service, retained, or in a voluntary capacity and who have completed five full calendar years of service on February 6, 2012.

The team will collect their medals at a special ceremony on Friday, August 3.