The team was formed in July 1968 with 12 local men; they now have a complement of 40 volunteers both male and female. In 2015, the SMRT signed a joint working agreement with the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service to attend large scale flooding events and water rescues. Whilst the SMRT cover over, they do not confine themselves solely to Swaledale, Wensleydale or even North Yorkshire. The SMRT have operated in York, Cumbria, and Whitby. As with most volunteer search and rescue teams, the SMRT does not receive any local, regional or national funding. It relies solely on the support of local people and organisations. During 2009, SMRT were involved in 30 callouts and 35 in 2010. Previous numbers had been in the high teens and low twenties; the rise in number of callouts was attributed to people Staycationing after the financial crisis of 2007–2008 of the late 2000s. During 2016, the team were called out fifteen times to a variety of rescues including one where a Tescodelivery driver had driven off a small cliff near Leyburn in North Yorkshire. The SMRT work from a building located on the Catterick Garrison estate. The British Army used to charge the SMRT for use of their training land, but after the SMRT were called out to search for missing soldiers, the army agreed to drop their levy to a peppercorn rent of just £5 per year.
Role
The SMRT are used on the usual range of rescue and search operations. Notable examples of their involvement include;
The SMRT have a sub-team known as the Swiftwater and Flood Rescue Unit which responds to water-based incidents such as missing kayakers, people who are trapped in vehicles with floodwater rising around them and stricken cattle stuck in watercourses. The unit was formed in 2003. Whilst the traditional role on a Mountain Rescue Team is of rescuing people and cattle, SMRT have been called in by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority to help remove dumped rubbish. In 1999 the SMRT were asked to help out at the Buttertubs Pass as detritus such as a tractor wheel and a telegraph pole had been dumped down the holes on the pass. As the park rangers lacked the specialist equipment needed to access the pot-holes, SMRT were called in.
