A HARD-PRESSED rescue team has taken delivery of a new mobile control room but now needs to raise £25,000.

The Cleveland Search and Rescue Team volunteers paid £4,000 for the former fire brigade vehicle and have spent a further £20,000 converting it.

They were called out 35 times last year to search for overdue or injured walkers on the hills surrounding Teesside, but their control room was in a poor state of repair.

They have had to raid their charity's reserves to pay for the new one and have now launched a fundraising drive to replace the money.

Team spokesman Pete Mounsey said: "We usually get old ambulances, or old vehicles and convert them. We were hoping to get a purpose-built one, but the cost was going to be anything between £60,000 and £70,000, and the one we have got now was sitting at Thornaby fire station.

"We asked the fire brigade where it was manufactured and they said "put a bid in, we are selling it". It is what we need, a mobile control room, with radios, office space, support facilities and some load carrying.

"It's got an on-board generator, a toilet, hot and cold water and we can brief the whole team inside it, far easier than briefing them outside in the pouring rain."

Viking One is the fifth control vehicle that the team has commissioned in its 40-year history.

Mr Mounsey said: "This new vehicle will make it much easier for us to plan and control searches anywhere on the moors."

He added: "We need about £25,000. We have done it before. It will take a lot to do but we have something specific to raise money for and that always helps."

More than 100 walkers recently took part in a clifftop walk from Whitby to the public bar of the Frigate Inn, in Marske, to raise money for the team. It was the ninth fundraising walk organised through the pub.