THE Echo has covered many stories of organisations who have purchased defibrillators, many being placed in public places with special access boxes.

A more recent success story was the supermarkets who had purchased one for each store and how in Totton it saved a man’s life.

As the only Ukip councillor on Fawley Parish Council, I find I am sidelined in any proposal I make.

I am on the amenities committee and my first proposal regarding defibrillators was turned down on the question of cost and training, ignoring the fact that Esso had suggested at the time that they would look favourably on a grant application.

I made a request to Cllr Allen Glass to put it back on the next agenda but was later told it was not supported by the chairman Cllr Wappet who apparently stated they could get an ambulance if required.

Hampshire Ambulance Service, with its volunteer fast responders, is very efficient but it would be a very good day if they could reach a heart attack victim at Gang Warily in the ‘golden minutes’ when only the availability of a defibrillator would save a life at risk.

The parish council has a very modern hi-tech fitness suite where medical referrals are made from doctors.

Older citizens train here and it is used by junior and senior football teams plus rugby, five-a-side and many more vigorous activities for which to my mind any proper risk assessment would suggest a defibrillator is required.

Modern defibrillators are fully automatic. A voice command tells you how to operate it. It cannot shock if the heart is still beating and no training is required.

Even a teenager or a child could open one and use it. The council’s failure to provide a defibrillator might find us all in trouble at a coroner’s court.

I even wonder if as a Ukip councillor I offered to provide a defibrillator like they have at St John’s Hall, Hythe, where the public can punch in a code and gain instant access, they would turn down my offer on the basis of the cost of a new battery every seven years?

Councillor Phillip Pearce-Smith, from Holbury