A MOUNTAIN rescue team is delighted to benefit from money granted by the Gannett Foundation.

Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team received a grant from the Gannett Foundation of £1,000 to help them towards a permanent purpose-built base to replace the rental units.

Every year Newsquest Media Group supports charitable community projects all over the country.

Martin Cooper of Duddon and Furness Mountain Rescue Team said: "The base is a big project. The costs have soared in the last five years and the delay of the lockdown and then having to re-cost has put it up considerably. 

"People and organisations are very good so it is trickling in such as this grant. They are coming in from here and there and I think we are confident that we will get there."

The team purchased a plot of land adjacent to their current rental base at Foxfield in April 2023, after more than 10 years of negotiation over land access.

Their next step is to get the builders to quote the costs of the work.

"The document for the build will go out hopefully in the next fortnight and that should attract quotes from builders as to exactly what this project is going to cost because all we got is the quote from the surveyors which is very high.

"There is still a long way to go but we are optimistic. It will be somewhere near a million - it is a big bill and yet it was only £650,000 when we started just before the lockdown when we last had an estimate of the cost.

"We have had a couple of good grants and small grants to support us which has built up over that 10 years. It is impressive," concluded Mr Cooper.

The £1,000 awards are made through the Gannett Foundation UK, the parent company of The Mail which is the parent company of Newsquest Media Group, whose titles include The Mail, News and Star, The Cumberland News, Whitehaven News, the Times and Star and The Westmorland Gazette.

More information, including how to donate to the cause, can be found at https://www.dfmrt.org.uk/