Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team
Northumberland National Park Mountain Rescue Team provides a vital, life-saving, emergency search and rescue service throughout the Northumbria Police area. This vast, largely remote, unpopulated area encompasses all of Northumberland and Tyne and Wear and measures approximately 5,000 km2.
The Team is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and responds, along with the North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team, to a wide range of incidents including:
- Mountain/hill search and/or rescues – for missing, overdue or injured outdoor enthusiasts (walkers, fell/trail runners, mountain bikers, climbers, etc.), in summer and winter conditions.
- Lowland searches – for high-risk, vulnerable and despondent individuals who are missing from home in urban and rural areas (e.g. elderly individuals living with dementia, young children).
- Lowland rescues – of injured and in some cases deceased individuals in ‘difficult to access’ places for the statutory emergency services.
- Water search and rescue – for kayakers/canoeists and other water-related incidents, where bankside and in water search and rescue capability is required.
- Resilience – working alongside the statutory emergency services in responding to severe/extreme weather events (e.g. snowbound motorists, families trapped by flood waters).
Last year we spent 290 days directly involved in operational search and rescue activities. This figure excludes the 8288 volunteer hours involved in governance and administration, training, vehicle and equipment maintenance, fundraising and liaison with other agencies.
These incidents regularly involve co-responding with other emergency services, notably Northumbria Police, North East Ambulance Service, Northumberland Fire & Rescue Service, HM Coastguard and the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
