The North Dartmoor Search & Rescue Team are raising funds to replace their current Incident Control Unit (ICU).

The current ICU is an extensively modified IVECO Daily light commercial van which serves as a mobile base during call-outs. It was first registered in 2002 and purchased second-hand by the team in 2006.

The vehicle is equipped with sophisticated electronic equipment which is used to co-ordinate searches and to maintain mobile communication links with operational search teams when on a call-out. It is also used to store vital medical and rescue equipment, as well as providing shelter for exhausted team members and casualties during bad weather.

The ICU is now twenty years old and in urgent need of replacement. Each year brings more and more mechanical and structural problems and the team has it on good authority that the vehicle will almost certainly fail its MOT next year owing to extensive rusting of the chassis and bodywork.