A group who give up their spare time to train to go and search for anyone lost in the countryside had its new command and control vehicle officially launched by Assistant Chief Cons-table Patrick Geenty.

The launch took place on Sunday in West Woods in the Kennet Valley near Marlborough, the sort of dense woodland where the 50 or so volunteers are trained to carry out searches.

The new van is a mobile control centre with radio links to the police and it tows a trailer containing mountain bikes to enable members to cover ground quickly. It also carries two kayaks.

Chairman Steve Upton said WILSAR, which is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, had taken five years to raise £25,000 for the van.

“We identified what was needed which was good and that it was going to cost a lot of money, which was not so good,” he said as members of the group prepared to carry out a training exercise.

“It carries all the equipment we need to mount a search and to get a search resource on to the ground quickly,” said Mr Upton.

ACC Geenty said he is looking forward to working with WILSAR, as he had with their North Yorkshire equivalent when he was previously based in Humberside. He said: “Without you people would die and the work you do is incredible.

“You are a team of enthusiastic and experienced people. Wiltshire is lucky because there are some areas of the country that do not have that. Thank you on behalf of the people of Wiltshire for doing a terrific job.”