Search on for rescue charity home
A CHARITY that helps emergency services has launched it own search – for a permanent home.
Berkshire Lowland Search and Rescue (BLSAR) urgently needs a new base, with room to store its vehicles, boats and specialist equipment.
The charity is the primary search resource for Thames Valley Police in Berkshire.
Highly trained volunteers use specialist skills to search for high risk vulnerable missing persons.
It has been in temporary accommodation for some time, and its volunteers are now aware that they will have to move in late September or early October of this year.
Team secretary Richard Turner explained: “We’ve been semi-nomadic as an organisation for a while.
“We were located in Easthampstead House, which was then sold. After that we were given space at Arborfield Garrison, but then that was built up and we had to move again.
“Wokingham Borough Council gave us space at Toutley Depot, but we’ve always known that the depot is just a temporary home.
“Now Toutley is being developed, once again our position is very unclear.”
There is a small possibility that BLSAR will be able to stay where they are if their current building is refurbished rather than demolished.
But even then the charity will still need to move out while work is completed.
“We’ve got four transit vans, two boats, and a fair amount of search gear and medical equipment,” explained Mr Turner.
“We’re in communication with Wokingham Borough Council about our position, but getting a definitive answer is difficult.
“They’ve been very good, but we just can’t stay in no-man’s land.
“We absolutely can’t wait until September to suddenly find that we have no home.
“We are caught between a rock and a hard place, and we crave certainty.”
The charity, which provides a round the clock rescue service for the whole borough, needs to find a permanent home soon.
Ideally, they would like to hear from someone with a small industrial unit.
“That, or a reasonably sized farm building is what we need – with a minimum of 1,000 sq ft,” continued Mr Turner.
“One of our vans is 7.4m long, and we keep one of the boats on a trailer, so we do need a fair amount of room.
“Ideally we require a ground floor unit, with space to park the vehicles, and room to store all the equipment on racks at the back.
“We’d also need access to water, toilets, power, and above all, the ability to get to the equipment at any time of night or day.
“Wokingham and Bracknell are roughly in the centre of Berkshire, and therefore the best locations to enable us to reach everyone who needs us.”
BLSAR volunteers are fully trained in search techniques and management.
“When a vulnerable person is reported missing, the police are notified first,” said BLSAR research technician David Lorison.
“If they need further assistance, they contact us.
“Our on-the-ground control team works with the police and draws up a search pattern, starting where the person was last seen.
“We break into groups of four, each with a team leader, a navigator, a communications officer, and a medic.
“Hopefully, we will come across the vulnerable missing person, and when we do, we are immediately able to apply first aid or support, before getting them back to a place of safety.”
Teams can be called upon any time of day.
“When our phones go, we leap out of bed and get to the base as quickly as we can, continued Mr Turner.
“We arrive in our own three or four cars, leaving them parked while we take the rescue vehicles out.
“It can be 3am, when everything’s really icy, that we find ourselves on duty.
“Many of us work, and some are retired, but we’re all people who want to give something back to the community – it’s in our DNA somehow.
“We’re a great team, there’s a special camaraderie when you’re all focused on the same task.
“Suddenly all your own daily troubles fade away.”
BLSAR would like to hear urgently from anyone able to discuss a new home for the charity, ideally in Wokingham, or in a nearby location.
“We have access to some funding and resources, but this would need to be a philanthropic gesture of help.”
If anyone thinks they may be able to provide a suitable space, the charity would like to hear from them urgently.