Penrith Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) is launching its fundraising campaign for a Better Base at the Penrith Show this Saturday (18th). The Team needs a Better Base if it is to continue as an effective voluntary search and rescue service for its community and for visitors to its extensive operational area. Its current Base on Tynefield Drive, Penrith, is no longer fit for purpose in terms of space, security and sustainability.
Penrith Mountain Rescue has 40 members, all of whom are volunteers. They are available 24/7 for 365 days in the year. In 2025 the Team responded to 46 call outs, and to 25 call outs in the first half of 2026.
The area covered by the team extends from the Far Eastern Fells of the Lake District around Haweswater, across to the North Pennines and Cross Fell, and all the way up to the Scottish border, accounting for about 1600sq miles. It includes the highest points on two of England’s most popular long distance trails, the Coast-to-Coast (Kidsty Pike) and the Pennine Way (Cross Fell). Its ability to operate relies on donations and fundraising initiatives.
The Team and its supporters have already put this project on a strong footing with significant funds raised to buy a plot of land, and planning permission has been secured. The estimated cost of the build and fit out of a Better Base is £1.4 million. Over £600,000 has been secured towards this total. The fundraising campaign is to raise the remaining £750,000 plus.
Penrith MRT has outgrown its current Base, as Team Leader Sharon Kennedy explains:
“When our current Base opened in 1990, the Team had just two vehicles, a smaller number of volunteers, and no capability, or equipment, for water rescue. As we have increased in numbers of volunteers, types of callouts, and the equipment and vehicles needed to run the Team, we are now bursting at the seams. Our meeting room is now also our drying room, storage space and training facility and sadly it does none of these things well. It is time to upgrade.”
The Better Base will provide more space, improved security and greater sustainability. Space for vehicles and equipment, for storing and drying kit, and for people – including welfare basics for Team members. Security for valuable equipment, gear and vehicles, and the technology and infrastructure essential for modern search and rescue. Sustainability, with room for operational growth by including scope for future expansion, and by incorporating renewable energy generation. The aim is for the Better Base to be operational by late 2028, subject to good progress on fundraising and any practical issues encountered.
Alasdair Brock, Project Lead for the Better Base and a Team member since 1995, underlines the support needed from the community, including organisations, businesses and individuals, for success in the fundraising campaign:
“Increased requests from the Police for help in finding missing vulnerable persons, flood rescue (such as Storm Desmond), assisting hard-pushed neighbouring MR Teams such as Patterdale and Keswick and modern requirements such as drone searching have made what in 1990 was a leading-edge Base, inadequate. We need the community’s help to be able to provide the professional modern search and rescue capability that we now need to offer.”
Further information about our Better Base project is online at: www.penrithmrt.org.uk/about/better-base
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