THE?hunt is over — North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team has found itself a new centre of operations.

The team has been looking for an appropriate site for more than nine months and has finally found one, an industrial unit on Exeter Road Industrial Estate.

The new base will provide better access to the road network, and thanks to the secure garage space, will improve team response times.

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

The building will reduce the team's annual running costs through modern insulation, heating and drying equipment, and a reduction in rental costs.

It covers more than 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.

The team is looking to raise £100,000 to buy the building and a further £90,000 to conduct legal and building work, and fully equip the new centre.

To meet the target, approaches are being made to a number of charitable organisations who could contribute. The lease for the property is currently being drawn up.

Andrew Aiano, chairman for NDSART, said: 'It's exciting. It gives us a chance to develop and become the master of our own destiny.

'We have started fundraising. We are hoping we can receive some lottery funding, and we have also applied for other grants. One or two big grants would really help us along.

'We knew that it would only be a matter of time before we needed a new centre, so we thought we would start looking and have found a great site.'

The team currently rents a property in George Street behind the town's NatWest branch. They have been based in the building, a converted stable block, since the late 1980s. The team has outgrown the site, with no secure vehicle parking, equipment drying areas and limited storage space.

The current lease is due to expire within the next 12 months, and the team has been fundraising to buy a suitable freehold building which will meet the group's future needs.

NDSART 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, 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.

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 and how to become a member of NDSART.

BELOW:?NDSART members and their rescue vehicle at the site of their new base.

Picture by James Bird