Mountain rescue teams have raised concerns that funding for their life-saving equipment could be diverted to traditional police activities.
The issue has been highlighted by one Highland mountain rescue team, which was involved in a protracted operation earlier this week.
Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team (LMRT) lost a substantial amount of equipment during the rescue of four men lost on Ben Nevis overnight on Wednesday.
Three of the party, who were Tesco employees from Manchester, fell several hundred feet and were lucky not to suffer more serious injuries.
As well as criticising the group, senior members of LMRT said that Scotland’s new single police force presented them with “major challenges”.
In a statement on its social networking page, Lochaber team bosses said: “We are concerned about potential dilution of funds which were originally earmarked for mountain rescue being diverted to other areas which are not technically mountain rescue – albeit as important.
“With the police having to make budget savings there is a risk that some of the roles they have traditionally covered now being farmed out to mountain rescue teams, particularly in the lowland setting which is putting the allocation for the teams that operate in the remote mountainous regions at risk.”
Their concerns were backed by another Highland rescue team.
Willie Anderson, the leader of Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team, said: “We need to be careful that money isn’t getting drawn away for what is police activity rather than mountain rescue work.”
Simon Steer, the chairman of Scottish Mountain Rescue, which represents all Scottish teams, said he appreciated their concerns.
He added: “The challenge for mountain rescue teams is that they operate on minimal public funding and are seeing ever increasing work loads which stretches resources even more.”
But Superintendent Dougie Lynch, head of specialist operations for Police Scotland, said: “Mountain rescue teams across Scotland do a remarkable job and Police Scotland values their help and commitment to keeping people safe. Police Scotland has previously contributed to the funding of the mountain rescue teams and is continuing to do so at the same level as in previous years.
“The introduction of a single police force has allowed us to deploy more resources to assist mountain rescue teams, including the police helicopter, which was not previously available.”