OId red village phone box could get a ‘shocking’ new use

Liam Randall, local democracy reporter

An old red phone box in a Flintshire village could soon be converted to house a defibrillator.
It follows proposals being submitted to give the phone box on Monastery Road in Pantasaph a new lease of life.

Whitford Community Council took on the phone box from BT Payphones in January, with the phone equipment since removed.

It has now teamed up with the Awyr Las NHS charity and Welsh Ambulance Service to install the life saving device, a defibrillator, which can be used to give an electric shock to the heart of someone who is in cardiac arrest.

In a statement entered with Flintshire Council, the community council said: “The community council have been provided with a Zoll AED plus semi-automatic defibrillator, which has been supplied by the Welsh Government (Save a Life Cymru) and Welsh Ambulance Service.

“The community council have removed the ivy and other overgrowth from inside the phone box and cleared the overgrowth from behind the structure.

“The council are currently in the process of obtaining quotations to repair and repaint the phone box – as per BT painting specification.

“To install a defibrillator to the inside of the red phone box, would involve a board being placed against the inside back of the phone box, fixed to the left hand side of the board would be a cabinet to house a defibrillator, which would be connected to the electricity supply.

“The remainder of the board would display bilingual usage and map information of the area.”
Comments are currently being invited on the plans via the local authority’s website, with a decision expected at a later date.