ILMINSTER NEWS: Life-saving phone box plans supported

EVEN if an emergency public defibrillator, which is set to be installed in a town centre phone box in Ilminster, saves just one life in the years ahead – it will have been a successful project to have undertaken.

That was the message from the Mayor, Cllr Val Keitch, on Tuesday (August 15, 2017) as members of Ilminster Town Council decided to go-ahead with plans to adopt the phone box from British Telecom which sits in the Market Square.

Once the full agreement has been reached and the phone box is decommissioned by BT, then it is expected that a defibrillator will be installed.

And Cllr Keitch said: “If we save just one life with it over the next few years then it will have been well worth doing.”

The defibrillator has already been bought and paid-for thanks to an amazing community fundraising project by local people.

Another defibrillator has already been installed at the Archie Gooch Pavilion off Canal Way in Ilminster, but organisers had always wanted to have the other one in a town centre location.

A defibrillator can be used in the event of somebody having a heart attack and could literally mean the difference between life and death.

British Telecom had already confirmed it would allow the town council to adopt the traditional bright red phone box for the princely sum of £1.

Cllr Andrew Shearman tongue-in-cheek asked what part of the council’s budgetary coffers would the £1 be coming from – only for Cllr Matt James to produce a £1 coin from his pocket and said “here you go.”

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