Rescuers to issue cash plea to PM

Mountain rescue teams are on call 24 hours a day

Mountain rescue chiefs from England and Wales are to warn the prime minister the services could struggle unless urgent funding is found.

They will ask Tony Blair for £1.5m a year to help the two countries' 73 teams with their annual running costs.

Wales' 15 voluntary rescue teams jointly receive £13,000 assembly government funding, and nothing from the UK Government.

The Scottish Executive has been part-funding its 23 teams since 2003.

Penny Brockman, of Central Beacons Mountain Rescue, is due to meet Mr Blair along with Merthyr Tydfil MP Dai Havard on Wednesday at Downing Street.

There are 15 rescue teams in Wales, including mountain and cave rescue, and dog search units.

The £13,000 they receive from the assembly government can only be used to buy equipment.

'Professional service'

Rescue teams in Wales warned in January they needed public funding to reflect their increased use as "urban search" teams by police.

Chris Lloyd, from Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Team, said he feared they were often used just as a "cheap resource".

Many teams also say they spend as much time fundraising as they do on rescues.

Ms Brockman, treasurer of the Mountain Rescue Council for England and Wales, said: "We are a 999 service in our own right. We provide a professional service, but the only difference is that we're volunteers.

"We'll be asking Mr Blair for funding in line with the Scottish model."

In recent months, the Central Beacons Mountain Rescue Team has been used to search for a young child in Haverfordwest and an elderly man with Alzheimer's in Tonyrefail.

Other teams have been called out to search for the bodies of people who have killed themselves and to hunt for evidence in murder cases.

Mountain rescue teams are often used in "urban searches"

Brecon Mountain Rescue Team has estimated annual running costs of around £20,000 which is paid for by fundraising events.

Deputy leader Mark Jones said some volunteers were worried about where their next litre of fuel is coming from.

He added: "We nearly spend as much time fund-raising as we do rescuing people.

"We have to fund things like blue light training [emergency vehicle training] with the police.

"That means a person having three weeks off work, often unpaid, to go on a course.

"Our running costs are about £20,000 per year and we calculated one year that we saved Dyfed-Powys Police about £200,000 in rescue costs."

A Home Office spokeswoman said in January that mountain rescue work was "welcomed".

She added: "Local police forces have different priorities in the work they do, so it's a matter for them and local chief constables to make a decision on what they do to assist local mountain rescue teams."