THE Rossendale and Pendle Mountain Rescue Team has been awarded a grant to fund a ‘lifesaving’ all-terrain vehicle.

The Big Lottery Fund has given £9,900 to the team through the Awards for All scheme.

The grant money has been used to purchase a new vehicle to allow for the swift transportation of personnel and equipment to a casualty site.

The new vehicle will be fully road legal and comes fitted with bright search lights and blue lights for identification purposes while off-road.

Team leader Pete Goble said: “The new vehicle will allow us to serve the local community better, with the time taken to get to a casualty being reduced – whether this is on Pendle Hill or down a snowy lane at a remote farmhouse.

“It can travel where our 4x4 vehicles can’t and has minimal impact on the travelling surface.

“We now have two all-terrain vehicles which allow one to be stored at a location for swift use on Pendle Hill and the other to be transported from our Burnley Base to an incident quickly.

“We can travel up the Miners Track on Pendle Hill and get lifesaving equipment to a casualty in under eight minutes – it could be the difference between life and death.”

The fundraising is set to continue at the team however as its original all-terrain vehicle will come to the end of its’ serviceable life soon.

The team will have to decide whether it can afford to replace it.

A spokesman for the team said: “We will also continue to fundraise for the £30,000 it costs to run the team every year before the major expenditure of new ambulances, base renovations and the like are considered.

“The public support of our lifesaving search and rescue service is extremely valuable to us and we thank the public for their ongoing support – remember we do so much more than just mountains.”

The latest grant is the third the team has received from the Big Lottery Fund in recent years.

In September 2013 the team received £10,000 for new jackets and £10,000 to help fund a new ambulance.