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← Kinder Mountain Rescue Team

2025-02-28-accounts

Kinder Mountain Rescue Team

Annual Report and Accounts

April 2024 - March 2025

I ntroduction

Welcome to the 2024 Annual Report for Kinder Mountain Rescue Team. If you have any comments or feedback please contact us.

Contents

  1. Legal and Administrative Information

  2. About the team

  3. Message from the Chair

  4. Operational update

  5. Financial summary

  6. 5-year plan and fundraising aspirations

  7. How to contact, follow and support us

  8. Appendices - financial data and independent examiners report

1. Legal and Administrative information

Current Trustees

Chair: Alison Wild Secretary: Jim Harries Team Leader: Alan Howarth Deputy Team Leader: Dave Eustace Deputy Team Leader: Dan Heighway Treasurer: Dave Cotton Medical Officer: Oliver Pratt Equipment Officer: Rich Johnson Training Officer: James Lee Communications Officer: Karl Tiffany

Charity Number: 1115933

Company Number: 5853040

Registered Office: Coach House Farm, Castle Edge Road, New Mills, HIGH PEAK, Derbyshire, SK22 4QF

Independent Examiner: Vivien Cross, Vivien Cross Accountancy Services, Bracken Clough, Start Lane, Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire, SK23 7BR

Bankers: CAF Bank Limited 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4JQ

2. About the team

Kinder Mountain Rescue Team (KMRT) (https://kmrt.org.uk) was established in 1971. Our base is in Hayfield in the High Peak and we operate mostly within the UK Peak District National Park and in the rural and urban areas of north Derbyshire, Macclesfield and Stockport. We also support wider local and national emergency response as required.

What we do

The team’s primary objective is to support the community 24/7/365 providing specialist search and rescue at the request of the emergency services, including:

  1. Searching all terrains, urban and rural, for injured, lost or missing vulnerable people.

  2. Provision of first on scene casualty care, to protect life and to prevent any deterioration for the casualty, including the packaging and extraction of the casualty through to handover to ambulance services.

  3. Assisting water rescues (rivers, lakes, reservoirs and floods), response to bad weather (e.g. traffic and ambulance assistance in snow) and multi-agency major incident emergency responses (e.g. the partial collapse of the Whaley Bridge reservoir dam wall in 2019 and moorland fires).

Emergency services we work with

KMRT is one of seven teams within the Peak District Mountain Rescue Organisation (PDMRO) under the umbrella of Mountain Rescue England and Wales (MREW).

We primarily work with the Derbyshire Constabulary but are also called to assist Greater Manchester Police, East Midlands Ambulance Service and North West Ambulance Service. This means we work frequently with several Air Ambulance Organisations including UK Search and Rescue as part HM Coastguard as well as Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance.

Fundraising

KMRT receives no funding from central or local government and so we rely entirely on fundraising activities, donations and grants. It costs approximately £50,000 a year to run the team on top of which we have to fund significant projects, for example the purchase, maintenance and development of our base, new and replacement vehicles and equipment.

We are very grateful for the support and grants from several organisations. Over the last few years these include: New Mills & District Model Railway Society, the Macnair Trust of Marple and Mountain Rescue England & Wales (3 new vacuum mattresses), Rotary Club of New Mills and Marple district, ITV (through QSP ATF Ltd) for the use of our rescue vehicles in the filming of “After the Flood” TV Series 2, Staffordshire Freemasons (Stretcher wheels), Marple District Rambling Club, Trafford Ramblers, Big Exposure Printing, St Matthew’s Church Hayfield, High Peak Borough Council Councillors Initiative (rope rescue equipment, new laptop, water team helmets and hill party rucksacks), Whaley Bridge Over the Road Charity Shop, Visit New Mills, Marple District Rambling Club, St George’s Parish Council, SK6 Spinners Cycling Club, 2nd Bramhall Cubs, New Mills Wives, Marple 100 club, Bollington Skyline race, Torr Vale Mills Makers Market, Total Energies E&P charitable fund, Bramhall Runners, Sale Walking Group, Hayfield and District WI, High Lane WI, High Lane Village Hall Community Coffee Team, Green Farm Marquees, Derbyshire Wildlife Trust (High Peak Group), the Puttenham Bonfire Fund and the family and friends of Neil Broady who organised a sale of his artworks following his recent sad death.

We would also like to thank various organisations for donations received in return for team members support at local events, for example New Mills and Chapel-en-le Frith Town Councils, the organisers of Hayfield Apple Day, Hayfield Garden Trail, the Mount Famine / Mark Boulton Fell Race, the organisers of Hayfield May Queen, Hayfield PTA (the Chicken run fell race), Pennine Fell Runners, The Strines Nightingale Festive Fundraiser (musicians The Hayes Sisters, Oli Pratt and Dave Haddon), Just Giving (St Ann’s Hospice Christmas tree collection) and many others.

We are indebted to supporters who make donations in memory of friends or family who have died, including in memory of Dilys Riley, John Barton, David Cooper, Elizabeth/Becky Longden, John Shuttleworth and David Johnson.

In the 2024-25 financial year we received significant donations from the estates of Joan Gostick, Walter and Vera Chatterton and Christopher Martin.

We are also very grateful to each and every one of our numerous supporters who have undertaken incredible missions and projects to raise money for the team. There are too many to mention everyone, but these include Gill and Dave Soulsby, the Hayfield Craft Group, Sue McCall (Derbyshire Arts Trail), Henry Walsh (W3W art sales), I’d rather be Outdoors, Stockport MAD band (Ian Hendersen), Millers Refillers, Dave & Ursula (Peep O’Day parking), Niall Ibbotson (ultra marathon challenge, Stockport Ukelele players, Gamesley Primary School, Ferodo’s “Last man Standing” competition, Sam Dungey (100 mile Snowdonia race), Alex Berry (Highland Trail 550), Mike Stretton and Deepan Subbiah (who ran the London Marathon).

To help our community and raise additional funds through donations we assist at various community events such as:

The community we are here to help

Our base is in Hayfield, a large village at the foot of Kinder Scout in the Peak District, but our operational area covers not just Kinder Scout but a wider area including urban locations. The map below shows our operational area and the location of our callouts over the last 10 years:

A lot of people live close to and visit our patch. The Peak District is the most visited and most accessible National Park in the UK, close to the cities of Manchester, Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby. An estimated 20 million people live within an hour’s drive of the Peak District and more than 13 million people visit the Peak District National Park each year ( https://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/learning-about/news/70-years-of-the-peak-district-national-park/p eak-district-facts).

People flock to Hayfield every weekend, whatever the weather, to enjoy Kinder Scout and its foothills. Our ‘patch’ covers the Kinder plateau which includes a popular part of the Pennine Way, numerous Instagram advertised attractions such as Kinder Downfall (as a waterfall and for its renowned icicles for winter climbing), air crash sites (at least 6 sites on our patch with memorials or wreckage). It is the location for Duke of Edinburgh excursions, numerous fell runs and long-distance walks, and is very popular with mountain bikers.

Our interaction with the community

We work with and support our local community wherever we can.

We are also grateful for the support of several organisations who provide KMRT or team members with highly discounted or free goods and services or give us priority. There are too many to mention all of them but these include Jane Newman Planning, Pete Bland for fell race numbers, Hallam’s garage in Hayfield, Aiguille Equipment, James Alpes (Vehicle conversions), Outdoor Active, Tameside and Glossop NHS trust, Vivien Cross Accountants, Pyramid Doors, Bateson Trailers and numerous businesses and pubs who have our collection boxes.

Sustainability

As an outdoor organisation we are acutely aware of the challenges presented by climate change. In line with the Charity Commission’s guidance, we have integrated sustainability into the operation and

management of the team. We have a published sustainability policy which focuses on four key areas:

We are at the beginning of this journey and there are many challenges ahead. Some key achievements so far have been:

3. Message from the Chair

As well as responding to callouts, the team relies on additional hours from many operational members. This includes vehicle checks and maintenance, re-supplying casualty care stocks, the upkeep of base, planning and executing training, co-ordinating with other teams, bodies and organisations to share knowledge and best practice as well as create and run events, co-ordinating and attending fundraising events, finding and making grant applications, delivering talks to and hosting local groups to share what we do. There is a real level of commitment within the team over and above helping our casualties on callouts.

We continue to use part of the New Mills Fire Station which is rented from Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service and we are grateful for this space to store all our water kit and a vehicle. We have spent the last couple of years trying to increase the size of our Base in Hayfield in one way or another and after going through the pre-planning process we are exploring whether an expansion of our current location may be possible. Ideally we want all our equipment and assets central to Hayfield where we deploy from for the majority of our callouts. This would give us security and peace of mind that we can continue to operate quickly and efficiently and have the space to train and meet with our 50+ team members.

Without the continued generosity of the public, and those people and organisations who value our work, we would struggle to finance the ongoing needs of the team, we would be unable to keep up with developments in techniques, equipment, and be unable to meet the expectations of the people we rescue. On behalf of the Team Members and the people we have to rescue in the future I would like to say thank you to everyone who has given us a donation of any size.

We would also like to thank our neighbouring Mountain Rescue teams who respond when we need extra personnel to assist with search and recovery, particularly including the Teams at Glossop, Buxton and Edale. For our members to respond to callouts we rely on the continued support of their employers. We give our thanks to those businesses for granting this time and adapting to the inconvenience this can create. Finally, thanks to the families of the Team Members who are probably the greatest to be affected, not only the time for training, meetings and call outs, managing to deal with wet and muddy kit, as well as the call out alerts going off in the night, during dinner and on birthdays.

Alison Wild, Chair

4. Operational update

2024 – 25 has been a very busy year for the team, with 79 incidents and was our busiest year ever. The team has had to contend with a higher than usual number of incidents in addition to the challenging nature of some of these callouts. There have been some exceptionally difficult and emotionally draining incidents for the team.

Callouts April 2024 – March 2025

Callouts per calendar year

The team’s principal response area covers the western and southern areas of Kinder Scout, which is the highest point in the Peak District National Park. This is one of the busiest National Parks in the country, mainly due to its proximity and ease of access from both the Manchester and Sheffield areas.

Kinder Scout is a large area which is notoriously difficult to navigate in poor conditions. Visitors are regularly caught out by the severity of the conditions and the featureless nature of higher areas.

Almost half of our callouts are for lost / benighted and injured walkers, which reflects the terrain the team covers.

In 2024 the Team was made up of 53 members:

Role Number
Hill members 42
Probationary members 0
Operation support & drivers 4
Non-operational members 7

Many team members take on additional roles which require extra hours of training:

Role Number
Off-Road Trained Drivers 23
Off-Road Driving Instructor 4
Water Team, Swift Water Rescue Technicians (DEFRA MOD3) 10
MREW Casualty Care Qualification 24
Rope Rescue Instructors 2

The team also deals with a range of requests for our assistance including attending flooding incidents and searches for missing vulnerable people.

Many team members committed significantly more time than this for no financial reward, often in addition to their full time paid employment and family commitments.

Our training programme is key to being a successful mountain rescue team, so we are also ready to respond to a request for help in a search and rescue operation.

All team members are expected to attend a high percentage of our standard training which covers casualty care and mountain rescue skills every month, supplemented by monthly weekend exercises where we put this into practice and carry out exercises covering subjects such as rope rescue incidents, missing walkers on Kinder Scout, high risk missing vulnerable person searches and the like.In addition to this standard training, we must also carry out specialist training depending on our own individual specialist areas such as working with helicopters, off road driving skills, water rescue skills, search management planning skills, IT skills, leadership skills and much more.

The Team Leader is supported by two deputy team leaders and six assistant team leaders, all of whom are skilled and trained to a level where they can take a request for help and run a callout from start to finish. The team is fortunate to have such a group of dedicated leaders.

The other aspect of our operational work are the meetings and liaison groups with colleagues in other mountain rescue teams in both the Peak District and the Greater Manchester areas. The work that quietly goes on in the background with the statutory services ensures that we have exceptionally good working relationships with a vast array of partners including Derbyshire Police, Greater Manchester Police, Cheshire Police, East Midlands Ambulance service, North West Ambulance Service, Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service, Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service, HM Coastguard Rescue and various Air Ambulance charities.

My thanks go to every team member, their families, their employers and every single person who supports us in the work that we do. Without you all supporting us, we could not respond to requests for help from those who need our help within our local communities or all those who visit our area. Thank you.

Alan Howarth, Team Leader

5. Financial summary

The team has had another successful financial year, during which we have again benefitted from several legacies and donations, and also continued investments to maintain and improve our Search and Rescue capabilities, specifically the purchase and conversion of two replacement Landrover Defenders, and purchases of a new Bell rescue stretcher and vacuum body splints.

Income for the year was £106,936 and expenditure was £105,568. So we have received a net cash income of £1,368 over the year. The balance of funds at the end of the year was £373,830, £228,970 of this as cash in the bank and at hand. This means we retain £163,970 over our fixed reserve of £65,000, which ensures we retain sufficient funds to cover one year’s running costs or any uninsured events that would severely impact our operational capability.

We have policies in place for Financial Controls and Financial Governance. These are reviewed annually to ensure the trustees meet their obligations for responsible management of KMRT’s financial resources and that KMRT finances are managed in accordance with UK regulations governing charities and companies. We have buildings and contents insurance cover for both the main base at Hayfield, and our additional storage space at New Mills Fire Station. We keep our cash balance across several different banks to ensure all our funds are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

That we have had a good financial year is once again primarily due to the continuing efforts of the fundraising team, Pete and Amanda, who have successfully found several lucrative sources of grants and funding. Our thanks go to all members of the team and our to our wonderful supporters who have rallied round and supported us through a number of imaginative fundraising activities. We have listed major supporters of the team earlier, so will not repeat them here, but again, thanks to each and everyone of you however large or small your donation.

Major items of expenditure in the year include £71,819 on our rescue vehicles (including £63,362 on a replacement vehicle with the parts needed for the conversion); £9,655 on equipment; £4,100 on communications; £4,676 on premises; £3,378 on training; £2,6142 on insurance; £2,049 on medical supplies, and £1,350 on fundraising.

Dave Cotton, Treasurer

6. 5 year plan and fundraising aspirations

The Trustees and Leadership have introduced financial budgets for the various aspects of the Team to allow us to foresee and better plan for financial challenges the Team routinely faces.

Over the last few years they have also implemented robust organisational processes to continue our mission to have the highest levels of professionalism across all our operations and activities and in our financial controls and governance. This includes:

Based on this forward look, we maintain a rolling five-year expenditure plan, which includes all routine running costs, training costs, and maintenance and renewal of team equipment and personal issue kit. Increased inflation is an important factor which will increase costs on all aspects of our operations, and we have included inflation forecasts into our forward look and have taken action to mitigate the impact by moving some funds into restricted access higher interest earning accounts.

Major items of expenditure for the next 5 years include a further replacement of one of the team’s rescue vehicles, renewal of clothing for our hill party team members and replacement defibrillators. These costs are in addition to the projected £50,000 “normal” annual cost of running the team.

7. How to contact, follow and support us

If you would like to know more about us and follow us, we have a website and an Instagram, Facebook and Twitter page:

https://kmrt.org.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/kinder_mrt/

https://www.facebook.com/KinderMountainRescueTeam/

https://twitter.com/_KMRT

You can also view our popular callout videos on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/alanhowarth1/videos

If you would like to help raise money for us or donate we have a JustGiving page:

https://www.justgiving.com/kmrt

If you prefer to donate directly this can be done to the following bank details.

Account name - Kinder Mountain Rescue Team

Sort Code - 40-52-40

Account Number 00028522

Bank: CAF Bank Ltd, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ

Or through PayPal with this QR code:

If you have further questions or specific queries please email the Team Secretary at secretary@kmrt.org.uk who will forward your email to the most appropriate team member.

REMEMBER – IF IN DIFFICULTY ON THE HILL OR ELSEWHERE – CALL THE POLICE ON 999 OR 112, AND EXPLAIN THE SITUATION. THEY WILL TASK MOUNTAIN RESCUE.

8. Appendices - financial data and independent examiners report

A - Financial Report - Statement of Financial Activities

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KINDER

Kinder Mountain Rescue Team Kinder Mountain Rescue Team Charity No 1115933 1115933
Company
No		 5853040
Annualaccountsforthe period
Period start date 01/03/2024 To Period end
date		 28/02/2025

Section A Statement of financial activities (including summary income and expenditure account)

Expenditure (Notes 6)
Expenditure on:
Tax payable
Net gains/(losses) on
investments
Extraordinary items
Other gains/(losses)
Reconciliation of
funds:
Raising funds
Separate material item of income
Other
Other
Total
Recommended categories by activity
Income (Note 3)
Income and endowments from:
Donations and legacies
Investments
Charitable activities
Other trading activities
Gains and losses on revaluation of fixed assets for the
charity’s own use
Charitable activities
Separate material expense item
Total funds carried forward
Total
Net income/(expenditure) after tax
before investment gains/(losses)
Net income/(expenditure)
Transfers between funds
Net movement in funds
Total funds brought forward
Other recognised gains/(losses):
Net income/(expenditure) before tax for
the reporting period		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
funds
£
£
£
£
£
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
funds
£
£
£
£
£
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
funds
£
£
£
£
£
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
funds
£
£
£
£
£
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05		 Unrestricted
funds
Restricted
income
funds
Endowment
funds
Total funds
Prior year
funds
£
£
£
£
£
F01
F02
F03
F04
F05
59 090 1500 - 60 590 48 316
- - - - -
- - - - -
7 452 - - 7 452 5 359
18 894 - - 18 894 13 645
20 000 - - 20 000 -
105 436 1 500 - 106 936 67 320
1350 - - 1350 745
102 719 1500 - 104 219 49 879
- - - - -
104 068 1 500 - 105 568 50 624
1 368 - - 1 368 16 696
- - - - -
1 368 - - 1 368 16 696
- - - - -
1 368 - - 1 368 16 696
- - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
- - - - -
1368 - - 1368 16 696
372 462 - - 372 462 355 766
373 830 - - 373 830 372 462

Independent examiner's report FOR ENGLAND AND WALES on the accounts Ra AoWal ~~ee~~ Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the
trustees/directors/
members of		 Charity Name
Kinder Mountain Rescue team
On accounts for the year
ended		 28 February 2025
Charity no.:
111593
Company no.:		 5853040
Set out on pages Trustees Report, SOFA, Balance Sheet, Related Notes
(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the
Company for the year ended 28/02/2025.
Responsibilities and As the charity’s trustees of the Company (who are also the directors of the
basis of report company for the purposes of company law), you are responsible for the
preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the
Companies Act 2006 (“the 2006 Act”).
Having satisfied myself that the accounts of the Company are not required
to be audited for this year under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for
independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of your
charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 charity’s accounts as carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011
(“the 2011 Act”). In carrying out my examination, I have followed the
Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the
2011 Act.
Independent
examiner's statement		 [The company’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to
undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of
applicable listed body]]. Delete [ ] if not applicable.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me
cause to believe that:
• accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 386 of the
Companies Act 2006; or
• the accounts do not accord with such records; or
• the accounts do not comply with relevant accounting requirements under
section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 other than any requirement that the
accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part
of an independent examination; or
•the accounts have not been prepared in accordance with the Charities
SORP (FRS102).

October 2018

1

IER

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Date: 28/07/2025 Signed: ~~—~~ Name: Vivien Cross Relevant professional FCA qualification(s) or body (if any): ~~oe~~ Address: Bracken Clough, Start Lane, Whaley Bridge, SK23 7BR Section B Disclosure ~~es~~ Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

October 2018

2

IER

IER October 2018