NORTH Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team is on the hunt to find around £25,000 of funding to complete the purchase of its new centre.

The team has to raise a total of £100,000 and needs the £25,000 to reach that target.

Team members spent more than nine months looking for an appropriate site, and in June last year finally found one, an industrial unit on Exeter Road Industrial Estate.

The group's new base provides better access to the road network and, thanks to the secure garage space, improved team response times.

Situated adjacent to the West Devon Borough Council snow plough facility, the new centre will also improve availability during heavy snowfall.

To meet the cash target, the team has approached a variety of charitable bodies to contribute. Okehampton United Charity has played a big part so far, contributing £40,000 toward the centre's purchase.

Other supporters include South West Water, Michelmores, the Norman Family Trust, Plymouth Masonic Lodge, the Prince's Charitable Trust and both Okehampton Town Council and Okehampton Hamlets Parish Council.

Andrew Aiano, chairman for the team, said: 'We have been able to move our vehicles inside, which is a great benefit. It means that we can have them loaded, ready to go, which we had been unable to do while they were parking in a public space.

'We are in the region of £25,000 short towards the new centre. We are grateful to the Okehampton United Charity for a large donation, which has helped to get our fundraising underway.

'However, we are getting to a stage where we have applied to all the obvious sources of funding from charities and organisations, and now may need to approach national and local businesses, and other related bodies.

'I suspect that local firms may find themselves able to support us once we own the building, for example, by providing materials for the refurbishment.'

The planned refurbishment, costing an additional £75,000, for the new centre on the completion of purchase includes modern insulation, and heating and drying equipment. These elements, alongside the reduction in rental costs, will lower the team's annual running costs.

The new centre covers over 160 square metres, with sufficient internal height for an upper storey. This will provide training and lecture rooms, an office and control room, meeting rooms, storage space for equipment, and the all important garage space for emergency vehicles.

Before finding their new home, the team was based completely at a property in George Street, behind the town's NatWest branch.

The team had been based in a converted stable block since the late 1980s. While serving well during its tenure, the team had outgrown the site, with no secure vehicle parking, equipment drying areas and limited storage space.

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

Since then the team's scope has grown, assisting the police and other emergency services by providing a search and rescue facility for missing and injured persons 365 days a year.

The team now has a wider operational remit, stretching from the Cornish border to the Blackdown Hills. This also includes assistance to the Westcountry Ambulance Service during times of adverse weather and urban searches for vulnerable people.

As a 999 service, the team attends around 20 incidents each year, plus roughly another ten during the Ten Tors challenge.

The team is one of four that makes up the Dartmoor Rescue Group (DRG). Over time the group became an officially recognised search and rescue body affiliated with the Mountain Rescue Council of England and Wales.

The NDSART consists of around 50 highly skilled volunteers, all from different walks of life with different attributes. Each member goes through a six to 18-month period of training including navigation, search techniques, casualty care, communications and helicopter deployment and evacuation. The group also has a swift water rescue facility.

The team is generally asked to assist after an emergency call is received by police, who initiate a search, and contact them.

For more information on the group and the work they do, visit http://www.ndsart.org.uk">www.ndsart.org.uk On the website, people can find out how to donate money to the team and how to become a member of the NDSART.