Rescue heroes' training exercise turns into a load of rubbish!

A scene from the rescue team litter pick

Once a month, Oldham Mountain Rescue Team meet on a Sunday for an extended training exercise.

This month it was a joint exercise with a Coastguard helicopter to practise casualty loading and unloading from the helicopter in various places across the moor.

However, on the day of the exercise, the Coastguard crew informed the team they could not attend due to operational issues.

This is quite normal as they must fit in training around real rescues.

Instead of training with the helicopter, it was suggested the team walk the tops at Dovestones picking up litter.

A team member had previously noted that there was a lot of rubbish at Bramley’s Cot.

A party was deployed from Ashway to walk south, and another deployed from Chew Reservoir to walk north. 

In total, seven bags of litter were collected.

Using the team’s off-road UTV buggy, the rubbish was transferred off the hill.

They were lucky to meet members of OMBC, who were emptying the bins, and they were happy to take the bags off the team’s hands.

Hopefully it will remain litter free for people and wildlife to enjoy. 

Remember to ‘Leave No Trace’.

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