It was a cold and wet Friday lunchtime as a small number of team members congregated at our land on the A52 in Mackworth. The wind, rain and road noise didn't dampen our spirits though as we were gathering to celebrate the official start of our build project for the new base - a base to call home. We were joined by Derbyshire Constabulary's Chief Constable Rachel Swann, who together with Team Secretary Lucy Green and Team Leader Martin Cavill hosted our festivities.
The notion of a permanent home was first raised back at the turn-of-the century (I couldn't resist, you don't get to write that very often). In 2000 it was suggested that the team investigate the possibility of buying out our currently rented garage, however this was unsuccessful. Since then the team has grown in operational numbers and the demands on training, continual personal development, and certification have put an extra burden on the garage. In short, we've outgrown the space we have available. Add to this multiple flooding events at our current garage requiring temporary evacuation and remedial works and it all adds up to one thing... we need a new base.
The current plan has been some time in the making with various team members and supporters being involved along the way. In 2014 we purchased a plot of land just off the A52 in Mackworth, since then several iterations of building plans have been made and we obtained planning permission in 2016. Fast-forward to 2024 we've worked our way through pre-requisites, raised enough funds to complete the first two phases of the project, and crucially we have now given the green light for the commencement of the build.
Due to the logistics of getting people on site we also held our first (semi-successful) live-stream, more on this to follow as we clean up the road noise on the audio.
Here are some of the highlights:
"The team is 60 years old this year, and I think in that 60 years we've been quite nomadic, trying to find places to train, keep our vehicles, look after our equipment, and we've always dreamt of having somewhere we can call our home, somewhere we could build a base. 2014 I think we bought this patch of land, so 10 years later after a lot of fundraising and a lot of effort on behalf of a lot of people, we've got to this point where we can start the build which is obviously a momentous occasion. Today we're going to start the foundations, we're going to get the building up hopefully by the middle of the year, and then we need some more funds to do the fit out and complete the building hopefully another few months after that.
So, massive thanks to everyone that's been involved in this project since it's inception in 2011, there's an awful lot of effort gone in from team members, supporters, friends, family, donors, sponsors, everybody really to get us to this point - so a massive thanks to all those."
We were delighted to be joined by Chief-Constable Rachel Swann, underlining the importance of the work we do.
"It is my absolute privilege and pleasure to come here to commemorate this occasion, we have a really strong, good working relationship with you in Derby Mountain Rescue. Keeping those people safe in the county, who live here, who work here, who come and visit, requires a really strong partnership effort. And it's those people like you, amazing people like you, who give up your time and volunteer to help keep those people safe particularly when they find themselves in a crisis. We are really lucky to benefit from such working. So as I say it's my absolute pleasure to come here and help break ground like this. I'm really glad you're going from strength to strength and wish you well for the continued fundraising and building of this new base."
After the obligatory turning of turf and some photos, team secretary Lucy Green gave a closing statement.
"I wanted to say a few thank-yous, which honestly is not an easy task, because over the last couple of decades leading up-to today so many people have touched this project and I didn't want to miss anyone. To that end we'd like to recognise the support of everyone who has been involved in the purchase of the land we stand on here today; To everyone who worked hard to get planing permission granted; To those who have worked tirelessly through all of the planning phases to this point so far; To all of our supporters who have selflessly donated their time and their money to our team to support us in our operations and getting us this far; especially to our operational team members past and present who have kept the team operational, and kept the wheels turning saving lives while this project has come to fruition; and thank you to Rachel for joining us here today and showing us your support as we embark on the next chapter in our Diamond Jubilee year."
As you can see from the photos, work is now well underway! As well as raising a large amount of funds to ensure the successful completion of the project we are also extremely fortunate to have been given many offers of help by our sponsors and local businesses offering a combination of free or at cost services, products, or plant all adding up to a substantial saving for the team. We'll try to make regular updates as donations come in, for now (and at the risk of missing some) in no particular order we'd like to thank Regular sponsors Carter Jonas, Tippers Building Merchants & Tippers Kitchens, Alfred Belle, Darwin Forest & Sandybrook luxury lodge holidays.
Also special thanks to Hitachi Construction Machinery, Longcliffe Quarries, Halso, Underwood Carpenter, Badger Commerce, AMG Groundworks, M. Lambe Construction, D-Tox waste management, Anvil Hire , J C Balls and Sons, Don and Low, Aggregate Industries, Corden Group
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Once again a massive thank you to all involved