## **DUDDON & FURNESS MOUNTAIN RESCUE TEAM** Affiliated to The Lake District Search & Mountain Rescue Association and Mountain Rescue, England and Wales Registered Charity 1173246 **www.dfmrt.org.uk** _**President** Peter Jackson MBE_ ## DFMRT AGM 23[rd] February 2021 ## Officers reports covering 1[st] January 2020 to 31[st] December 2020 _Chairs Report – Nigel Lister_ 2020 was undoubtedly the most challenging year I have seen in my 20 plus years with the Team, the Pandemic has affected almost every aspect of the team’s operations, and every aspect of team member’s lives for the past year. I have been amazed how well the team has responded to this challenge and we have remained operationally effective throughout the year. The Leadership group have had to continually update and modify our arrangements in line with changing government advice and I would like to thank Dave and the Deputies for the leadership they have given to the team in this difficult time. I know there have been many difficult conversations and decisions to make to balance safety of team members with keeping the team ready to respond effectively and to date we have been very successful in doing this. One of the highlights of 2020 was finally getting planning permission for the base, unfortunately progress remains slow, with the land purchase still not quite over the line. Final access issues have now hopefully been resolved, although it is likely it will cost an additional £19,000 to secure permanent access across the SLDC access road and strip of land, which is disappointing. On a more positive note, Martin and the fundraising group have been doing a great Job, so we are close to having the funding in place, which is fantastic! Once the land purchase is complete we will need to re-invigorate the base steering group so now is the time to volunteer if you have some time and skills to get involved! In terms of the peer review we completed in 2019 there is still more we would like to do but the work has paused due to the current circumstances, this is something we hope to revisit later this year both to ensure the changes we have made are embedded and effective and to consider some of the lower priority recommendations from the review. Membership has remained health with a steady stream of new applicants and highly capable probationers who have made good progress despite the difficult circumstances. This year it would be good to see more team members stepping up for leadership and committee roles – I know we have had some interest and hopefully there will be more Team Leader : Dave Binks, 7 New Street, Broughton in Furness, LA20 6JD Chair : Nigel Lister, Moss Cottage West, Foxfield, Broughton in Furness, LA20 6BT Secretary : Thomas Ferrero, 16 South Row, Barrow-in-Furness, LA13 0HL Treasurer : John Barstow, 21 Woodland Road, Ulverston, Cumbria LA12 0DX opportunity to shadow and get involved this year. Please consider if you would be able to take on more and discuss with your Leadership link. Finally, I would like to congratulate Mike on his well-deserved OBE and I would like to thank you all for your amazing response to the events of 2020 and your continued hard work to keep the team working as well as it does. Hopefully we will be back to face-to-face training soon as we find our ‘new normal’ for 2021. _Team Leaders Report – Dave Binks_ It’s been a challenging year. For me it started when I was in Italy snowboarding at the beginning of March last year, just as Italy was starting to lock down areas of the country. At the time, we thought it was all a bit of an overreaction. How wrong we were. A week later the whole of Italy was in lockdown followed less than a month later by the UK. It has been a very difficult time for team members, some have been isolating for nearly a year, probationers haven’t been getting the usual integration with the rest of the team members as we would like and everyone has had to deal with new procedures. Having said that, callouts have all gone very smoothly even with the added complication of PPE. The team has done exceptionally well adapting to and working with Covid19 and I would like to thank everyone for this. I am really looking forward to being able to meet everyone face to face again without having to stand 2m apart, outside and wearing a mask! LDSAMRA has done excellent work getting all team members vaccinated which should enable us to return more quickly to safe face to face training and give team members additional protection during callouts. Everyone has been shocked by the recent accident in the lakes and I am sure everyone is thinking of him, his family and his team who are struggling to come to terms with it all. Maybe now is a good time to remind people to please be careful when you’re out on the hills, accidents can happen to anyone, at any time. As a team we should be reminding each other to take our time, don’t let the red mist take over and lead to uncalculated risks; remember to look after yourself first, then your team members then the casualty. On a much brighter note, we have another decorated team member. Congratulations to Mike for his recent, well deserved OBE, plus 40 years’ service! Well done Mike. The team, as part of LDSAMRA, has also been awarded the “Queens Award for Voluntary Services” another well-deserved award. Once again, and finally, thank you to all team members, their families and supporters for their contribution to the team. Here’s looking forward to the rest of 2021. _Treasurers Report – John Barstow_ Page | 2 Once again the accounts are presented in three ways, one report for the old charity (Registered charity no.1098201), one report for the new CIO (1173246) and a combined report summing all the figures together. The old charity is virtually dormant now and it is our intention to formally close once the AGM is completed and the accounts have been confirmed. This narrative will cover the combined report and highlight the main details for everyone’s information. In 2020 income has fallen from a very impressive 2019, £114,088 in 2020 down from £173,022. This will certainly be directly connected with the Covid disruption and the fundraising report will provide more detail on this. Planning delays associated with the Base project prevented application for grants which may also have been lost due to Covid. Income from events has also fallen in the period. Expenditure has also fallen in 2020, down from £51,942 in 2019 to £38,245 in 2020. The fall is due to less expenditure on equipment but also due to initial project fees (Architect, Planning) on the Base project which were outlaid in 2019. We were unfortunately the subject to a rent and rates review by SLDC and a large bill for backdated rent was incurred together with a 50% rise in monthly payments. As part of Covid business support SLDC have however been able to make substantial support grants to cover Covid related costs. Despite the various pressures we were able to record this reduced annual expenditure. We have therefore been able to declare a surplus for 2020 of £75,843, down from £121,080 in 2019. This has nevertheless allowed a substantial transfer to reserves. Our reserves are expressed at the end of the report as “General”, “New vehicle”, “Base unrestricted” and “Base restricted”. The restricted element is due to a grant being made to us for £75,000 specifically for the new base cost. Although not at the level of 2019 our finances remain very healthy. This puts us in a good position to weather Covid issues and approach the new base project with a level of confidence that the remaining funds required can be obtained. I would like to thank members who have contributed to fundraising, particularly Martin Cooper and all his team. Thank you also to those who have made claims for expenses or for equipment purchases. Most are now careful to obtain clear VAT receipts to allow us to recover payments from HMRC. Thanks are also due to Auditor Stephen Nelson, who has checked and audited the books and also helped present them. _Fundraising Officers Report – Martin Cooper_ **General Fundraising** . A difficult year, due to the pandemic, with all collections, talks, Cartmel Races and our boxes producing very little income. This was however, offset by a legacy (£45,000), a donation from the Fred Whitton (£10,000) and grants from LDSAMRA (£12,000) and SLDC (COVID, £8,000) which more than covered our outgoings and allowed another £10,500 to be allocated to the new-vehicle reserve and £65,000 to the new-base. Our total receipts were a grand £114,000. **New Base Fundraising** . On a current build estimate of £644,000, which may be reduced by build options, we remain £127,000 short. However with an outstanding bid to the Walney Extension Community Grant and other grant opportunities; £51,500 in the vehicle reserve, which may be easier to divert and cover by bids for a new vehicle when required; and the opportunity to return to LDSAMRA; the picture is not all doom and gloom. Page | 3 **Supporters** . Our supporter base remains excellent. The categories of our income were simplified this year as is it no longer possible to identify the reasons for many donations. Those in response to a call-out, in memory of someone, in response to a Facebook post, through our website or in response to our newsletter are often unexplained. A talk may result in a modest income on the night but occasionally be followed up by a standing order, legacy or small event sponsorship in our favour. Facebook donations were a new venture in 2020 and raised £3530 (including Gift Aid) against our website which raised £7346. The former attracts smaller donations in response to a call-out post. We receive 50 standing orders of which 15 are monthly, raising in total £4342. **Newsletter** . We sent out 300 newsletters in January, the majority by post except for a few emailed on request and local ones delivered by hand. Some have questioned the cost of this exercise but many of our supporters are in the age group that is not computer literate and many prefer to read a hard copy, probably several times. The hand written (by Helen!) envelope makes it a personal contact rather than a data-base exercise and the cost is covered within the first 48 hours. [CAMRA suffered a 25% membership loss when their newsletter went on line - Daily Telegraph 1 Feb 21.] **Thanks** . I give thanks to our sub-committee and the active supporters who I predict will return with renewed vigour once things return to normal. _Training Officer’s Report – John Wealthall_ 2020 started off well with the training programme being followed and the whole team training at the same time! Remember those days? However, this did not last long as the spread of Covid-19 increased, and training methods had to be adapted. We had to get to understand Donning and Doffing, to make ourselves safe from infection both from each other and from those who needed help. Strict rules were introduced about travel to rescues and training. People who needed to shield for whatever reason or simply did not feel comfortable with the situation stayed away without the pressure of attendance statistics. I then introduced the system of dividing the team into two separate teams for training purposes; Team Hinkes and Team Stephens named after Alan Hinkes and Rebecca Stephens. This was to minimise the risk of infection and with fewer numbers attending, make the training more impactive. It was not long, though, before all face-to-face training ceased and we turned to virtual training to maintain our skills. This was a challenge for both myself as Training Officer and those who were running each session in terms of being able to create something meaningful through the medium of a computer screen. Virtual Training has, like all things do, developed over time to be an effective way of training and maintaining skills. It has allowed people to continue to interact and learn, sometimes more than they would at a base session. I introduced a new system of training, so that from January 2021, there would be training every week on a Tuesday plus one Sunday per month. I had hoped, of course, that we would be back to Face to Face training as a team by then but as we know the problem of Covid-19 has not gone away. Even when we do return to face-to-face training, I see the need for the two teams training separately existing for some time. There is a new system for recording training and call outs. Known as the Cleveland System, this started in January of this year and people are beginning to get used to how it works and what they have to do to ensure their training record is maintained. Page | 4 I also introduced a change to the way probationers are managed. I felt it would be better if there was one person in overall charge of all probationers who would then work with a small team of supporters to bring the probationers to the correct levels. This system was introduced for the 4 latest probationers and is, under the guidance and leadership of Will Reed, progressing well. The programme for 2021 is varied and dynamic. With the return to face-to-face training hopefully not too far off now, I am looking forward to another good year of training. I take this opportunity to thank everyone for their efforts with the virtual training we have had to date, from Cas Care questions and scenarios to knots and SARCALL training. This has been a challenging year and I, along with all the team look forward to a return to ‘normality’. _Medical Officer Report – Craig Stangroom_ DFMRT's approach to all aspects of casualty care quickly adapted to the challenges of Covid based on MREW national guidance and local considerations. Operationally the team provided casualty care for the usual range of injuries including walkers with lower leg fractures and a major trauma incident involving a crashed paraglider. Equipment development planning has continued with plans in place to change the care pack system. Training adapted to the changing Covid restrictions. Initially socially distanced casualty care scenarios provided good practical opportunities. With the advent of tighter restrictions training became remote. We are very grateful to Steve Johnson who provided excellent regular online MCQs, scenarios and discussions. However, the casualty care exam and preparation had to be deferred until the Covid situation permits safe face to face training. My thanks to the members of the Cas Care Organising Group and others who have helped keep all aspects of cas care functioning and particularly John Wealthall for his determined efforts to ensure cas care training continued during this challenging time. _Equipment Officer Report – Andy Woods_ **Covid 19 and Brexit** - The pandemic was obvious and main influence on all aspects of MR this year. Impact has been to delay and affect some ordering and standard actions, such as inspections. Priority was given to replacing summer waterproofs which are needed for PPE purposes. Deliveries of some items may be being delayed short term – long-term factors not clear yet, some indication that delivery costs are likely to be higher for some European sourced kit. General Team and personal Team kit - Various individual items of worn kit have been replaced, as well as the usual Probationer kit out and returns from Team members who are leaving or changing roles. A main new item in use this year has been the wheel which is routinely deployed when appropriate. No major issues with it and with reduced number of active members has meant good opportunities to learn and familiarise in use. Page | 5 Stretchers and helicopter bridles now checked and serviced. In future it will ease the process if the bridles are tested with the stretchers, which is the usual process for most Teams. Winter kit – annual training very limited, kit preparation will mostly need to be individual, so please be aware of this. Batteries for transceivers and headtorches in stock in office in Base. Rope bags and helicopters – some of our rope bags still need to be replaced, so that a potential winching risk issue (lack of a strong haul loop) has still to be been addressed. SGL packs – frequently used, some changes still pending and it looks as if Care Pack proposals may change the content. Extra warm items available for callouts to help with limited use of shelters due to Covid risks. **Future arrangements** - Peer review response led to a preference for a tighter electronic monitoring system which has been started in draft using spreadsheet approach for technical kit, AR leading on this. Further rollout when the checking process is more straight forward after lockdown eases. Expenditure this year will include new helmets for most of team and some crag kit replacement. **Training** - External equipment inspection training not taken place this yet but will still be needed in the Team as soon as provision available again. _Radio Officer’s Report – Paul Makinson_ 2020 has been a fairly uneventful Year for the Teams radio infrastructure, due to impact of Covid 19 much of the team’s training and callouts (and therefore Radio use) have been reduced or confined to the short but busy summer period between lockdowns. In general there were very few issues with the system in general. We continue to maintain repeaters on kirkby moor, Baskell Farm, Walney Fire station as well as making use of the repeater on Wasdale Base. We have enough spare handsets to equip new team members in the coming year. One notable problem that occurred was the loss of the Kirkby moor for several days in September due to a power outage on the wind farm, this led to our repeater resorting to the backup battery which eventually failed after a few days. We were fortunate that there were no callouts for this period but instructions on workarounds were provided. Another issue with Kirkby moor was a failure of the antenna on KM2 (the Wasdale/Kendal repeater) this did not impact our comms however as DFMRT manages the mast we took on the repair and replacement of the KM2 infrastructure and also took the opportunity to replace and upgrade the antenna on KM1. Lowering of the mast was arranged and paid for by Ventient Energy. The cost of antennas/cabling was split between DFMRT, Wasdale, Kendal and Coniston. A glaring problem with radio coverage remains the Upper Esk, Moesdale and the Cockley beck aria. Investigations into siting a repeater are ongoing but we are at the mercy of the national trust and local land owners which has caused us issues with previous enquiries. Many thanks to Dave Binks for his assistance and continuing to share his considerable knowledge of the system, thanks are also owed to Ventient Energy who have been accommodating when we experienced issues with Kirkby moor. Page | 6 _Vehicle Officer’s Report – Mick Pritchard_ It has been a relatively quiet year on the vehicle’s. All passed their MOT’s and there have been no rpoblems apart from the reoccurring problem with DM3 which again showed itself towards the end of the year. This has resulted in all the injections being replaced and Ford UK picking up the majority of the bill. Though they say it’s not a common fault and they try to say it’s the way we drive it, and I reply we didn’t have this problem with the previous Transit. A big thank you to Dave Hughes and Keith Nixon and anyone else who have helped with getting the vehicles in for servicing and MOT’s. No doubt once the Covid restrictions get lifted we can get back to some vehicle training ## _Water Officers Report – Will Reed_ **Overview:** Due to the pandemic a very tricky year to get much done. We managed to deliver a combination of virtual and face to face training, albeit at a lesser number and intensity than previous years. Our annual training trip away had been scheduled for March but we wisely cancelled this with the onset of the virus. In the autumn, we had 2 live training dates where the team were able to get together and practise techniques. There are undoubtedly areas in which the team will want to practise once we have the opportunity. The Swift Water Rescue team currently consists of: - 9 persons with their Level 3 Rescue Technician status. - 2 persons with their Advanced Technician status. - By the end of 2021, 4 of these 11 will required revalidation. - There is a desire to train 3 additional personnel to Level 3 status to make a team of 14. **Main team water competency:** During 2020 there was a push to shift the focus of water training for the full team towards a mountaineers’ perspective and away from swift water rescue techniques. This was done to reflect the terrain and types of callout that we operate in and will continue to be the focus of future training for the main team. **Equipment:** By end of 2021 there will be a need to replace all our main floating ropes (300m) and all our tape webbing used for technical rescue due to expiration. _Crag Officers Report – Thomas Fairchild_ **Overview:** The Crag Team has sufficient personnel to meet the demands of a complex crag incident. Although face to face training was impacted during the first half of 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic; a number of successful training sessions were ran during September 2020. A noteworthy crag incident on Scafell in August 2020 demonstrated that the Crag Team remain safe and proficient in this skill area. 2. **Crag Personnel** : The crag team currently comprises of 15 members (i.e. Level 2P or above). The breakdown of the team is as follows: - 7 crag leaders (3Rs) Page | 7 - 5 crag non-leaders (2Rs) - 3 crag probationers (2Ps) The current crag team numbers are good. The Scafell incident in August 2020 demonstrated that crag callouts could be run with a minimum of six to eight crag team members with additional non-crag team members in support. Therefore, the numbers are sufficient to ensure the team can respond to crag incidents. The three crag probationers have all demonstrated themselves to be safe and competent in a crag environment. They have been allocated a crag mentor to help develop their knowledge in the team’s crag systems and when training resumes their journey to becoming full Crag Team members will continue. **Training:** A breakdown of the face-to-face crag training sessions completed during 2020 is listed below: • Day: Full team – Lyon Equipment crag stations – February 2020 • Day: Crag Team only – System run through – September 2020 • Evening: Full team – Base crag stations – September 2020 • Day: Full team – Real time incident – September 2020 4. **Equipment:** The team’s crag equipment is sufficient and in good working order. A full crag equipment check was undertaken during November 2020 where the kit was catalogued along with its serial number so that its history and use within the team can be easily tracked. A couple of notable crag equipment changes are briefly mentioned below: - 130 m rope replaced November 2020 - 130 m rope bags on order and due for delivery early 2021 _SECRETARY’S REPORT - Thomas Ferrero_ I took over the secretary’s role from Vicky this February. She handed the position over in excellent condition; the documentation was in a good state, with clear traceability going back several years in all key areas. The team’s email account is active and receives a regular inflow of MREW updates, applications for the team and adverts. These are forwarded on where appropriate, but I am keenly aware that I don’t want to spam members emails with constant emails. If you feel like the current amount is too high/too low, let me know. The team gets applications and expressions of interest fairly regularly. We currently have 4 people who have submitted applications and are waiting for the next round of interviews, and 2 or 3 more who have been sent the application documents. At least one of these people applied to the team more than a year ago, but COVID-19 has impacted the normal interview process. Other open actions relate to document currency. Google Drive acts as the team’s document repository. This works well in general, but there is an opportunity to make clearer the periodicity of checks for safety critical documents. This is being actioned through the Committee. I also intend to create a member’s area folder for team document templates (reports, letter heads, procedures, etc.) Page | 8 N *140 INCORPORAT RNE ORGANISATI( 1173246 RECEIPT8 3.166.67 23511.95 11.133.Y 31.%2.76 4.785.78 J2.LDJ. 75,LDJ. 1.156.20 lJ05.29 470.r•) Jpptsrtto>d p¥tyt*n Evènts t*lDatIc￿S Tax RetundsL GfftAi¢J & VAT GraTrtsAeqa¢les luntethcWI Atthrted Income (Ntw ba5EI 3rd PatyRecdMS Inletesr J.18 31.117A2 5.269. 2Th) 1.tIXlAO of Equh¥menVrefuTh 744 TBnsf*¢ftorn NoTrCIO . 24.$￿.49 TOTAL RECEPTS 11191135 •ts,S94.rA TOTAL PAYIIENTS 38.245. 51.912.n IDEFlaTy8UFIPLU5 FL¥1 TFe YE*A 7&736A4 130.651.35 FiINDS ￿oU￿￿T FoRW￿D 482.779.11 328,127.78 FUNDS CAARIÉO FOftWARt) £538.514.SS f462 779.11 .514S5 75.IfyJAI 387.7MII 75.IA).tyJ £462 ng.11 Re5trbrted Res•rw IN•w Hepr•sentlni". 208.971A6 x•,6n.70 4.9rJ. 80,31& 132.676.34 56.187.13 Supwrter5A<d p¥tyt*n Evènts t*lDatIc￿S Tax RetundsL GfftAi¢J & VAT GraTrtsAeqa¢les luntethcWI Atthrted Income (Ntw ba5EI 3rd PatyRecdMS Inletesr J.18 31.117A2 5.269. 2Th) 1.tIXlAO of Equh¥menVrefuTh 744 TBnsf*¢ftorn NoTrCIO . 24.$￿.49 TOTAL RECEPTS 11191135 •ts,S94.rA TOTAL PAYIIENTS 38.245. 51.912.n IDEFlaTy8UFIPLU5 FL¥1 TFe YE*A 7&736A4 130.651.35 FiINDS ￿oU￿￿T FoRW￿D 482.779.11 328,127.78 FUNDS CAARIÉO FOftWARt) £538.514.SS f462 779.11 .514S5 75.IfyJAI 387.7MII 75.IA).tyJ £462 ng.11 Re5trbrted Res•rw IN•w Hepr•sentlni". 208.971A6 x•,6n.70 4.9rJ. 80,31& 132.676.34 56.187.13 Supwrter5A<