Northants 4x4 Response charity awarded grant to buy specially equipped trailer

A Northamptonshire charity that helps emergency services respond to certain situations has been awarded a grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.

Northants 4x4 Response, which provides specialist logistic support and water rescue capabilities, has used the money to upgrade its communication systems and purchase a specially equipped trailer.

The trailer displays the call-sign NH135, which belonged to former volunteer Jason Coombs who died in 2019.

Jason was a long-standing member of the team and through the trailer the charity hopes the spirit of his support continues.

The team’s upgraded radios include GPS tracking technology so that the duty controllers can see where resources are, and check on responders’ welfare while deployed.

A spokesman for the charity said: “This is vital as the team’s volunteers are typically deployed in severe weather to enable nurses and carers to get to their patients in the community, to get key medical and support staff to and from the county’s hospitals, and also to ensure that emergency control room staff are able to get to work so that there is someone there to answer a 999 call for help.”

Inside the trailer there is all the equipment that might be required to support a major incident, including shelter, lighting, communications, power supplies, tables, chairs and other incidental items needed to help the team on scene respond effectively.

The need for the additional equipment was identified following Christmas 2020 when the team aided the evacuation of Billing Aquadrome; however, the delivery of the trailer and equipment was delayed by Covid-related production issues.