Jones Bros provides vital funding for North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation22nd May 2024

Health and safety is always top of the agenda for Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK – and its support of North Wales Cave Rescue Organisation (NWCRO) reaffirms that.

The civil engineering firm has sponsored the charity which aims to preserve and protect humans and animals injured or stranded.

Needing to raise around £15,000 in the next few years to update and upgrade key equipment, Jones Bros is contributing towards the purchase of a rock exotica vortex tripod set.

It’s a donation that will help NWCRO’s 50-strong team continue to respond to calls, which average around one per month, in the most efficient way possible.

Robin Jones, Jones Bros payroll analyst and member of the cave rescue organisation, said: “We have limited funds and sponsorship like the one provided by Jones Bros goes an awfully long way.

“There is a list of things that we’d like to have, but there are other items that we need to operate, and this money will help us towards acquiring those.

“We constantly replace hundreds of metres of rope, which costs up to £2.70 per metre, and had to recently update two stretchers priced at £2,000 each.

“We simply can’t afford for anything to go wrong when we are deployed, so having equipment that is fit for purpose is non-negotiable.

“The tripod is an important piece of kit as a lot of the open mineshafts we attend are in various states of collapse given they’ve been abandoned for more than 100 years. It will allow us to access these without disturbing the fragile edges.”

The importance of NWCRO was highlighted in early May when three explorers were trapped in the Croesor-Rhosydd mine system between Croesor and Tanygrisiau near Blaenau Ffestiniog.

The through-route from one end to the other is a common one for enthusiasts, but some equipment is old or missing, meaning the course, which involves zip wires, suspension bridges, and inflatable boats, is fraught with danger.

Robin, who started caving 14 years ago, explained: “We were notified of the incident at just after 1am on the Sunday night and managed to get them to the surface at around 6am.

“Our expertise really came to the fore because we’d spent the day training in that exact mine system and recognised one of the specific pieces of machinery mentioned in the call.

“You can spend two-to-three days looking for people underground if you don’t know where they are, so that showcased the importance of our work.”

Anyone interested in supporting the NWCRO’s fundraising initiatives, can visit: https://www.northwalescro.org.uk/cave-rescue-fund-raising/

Established in the 1950s, Jones Bros owns one of the largest plant fleets in the UK and employs approximately 500 people.

The company is currently working on contracts in various sectors including highways, flood and marine defence, waste management and renewable energy around the UK.

The company runs an award-winning apprenticeship scheme, which has produced nearly 40 per cent of its current workforce, with many of its senior managers having started out as apprentices or in a trainee role. It has recruited more than 100 apprentices during the past three years.