The recent missing person search along the River Blackwater has served to highlight the importance of search and rescue units and the key role they play in assisting the emergency services during operations of this kind.
Run on a voluntary basis, these units receive little or no statutory funding, relying almost exclusively on fundraising events, donations from the public and the money members spend from their own coffers to remain operational.
Like so many other voluntary organisations they have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, with the cancellation of fundraising events meaning a key source of their income has dried up. As a result they are left with no option but to dig into their often meagre reserves and when they run dry members cover the costs of remaining operations from their own pockets.
The recent missing person search along the River Backwater has served to highlight the importance of voluntary search and rescue units and the key role they play in assisting the emergency services during operations of this kind.
Run on a voluntary basis, these units receive little or no statutory funding, relying almost exclusively on fundraising events, donations from the public and the money members spend from their own coffers to remain operational.
Like so many other voluntary organisations they have been hit hard by the Covid pandemic, with the cancellation of fundraising events meaning a key source of their income has dried up. As a result they are left with no option but to dig into their often meagre reserves and when they run dry members cover the costs of remaining operations from their own pockets.