Residents charged for life-saving defibrillator connection
Richard Evans, local democracy reporter
A residents’ association has claimed the local council “wiped out” their savings by charging them more than £1,000 for connecting a life-saving defibrillator.
The Old Colwyn Residents’ Association said they spent years raising thousands of pounds for the medical device, which can give a high-energy shock to the heart of a person suffering a cardiac arrest.
The residents’ association said the defibrillator was handed over to Conwy Council’s contractor for installation, and the device was then connected by the council before Christmas.
But they say they are furious that the authority has billed them over £1,500 for the device’s connection, which they claimed they didn’t expect.
The council said they provided a quote of £1,330.76 – excluding VAT – for the installation.
They said this was accepted by the residents’ association.
‘Terrible’
Merfyn Thomas, vice chairman of Old Colwyn Residents’ Association and former Conwy County Council councillor, said: “Old Colwyn Residents’ Association have put a defibrillator on the promenade, and Conwy charged us £1,594 for putting it in, for an electrical connection.
“That is there to save lives, and I think it is terrible for the council to actually charge us for putting that in, and that wiped out our entire savings.
“We wringed our accounts and we are now cleaned out.
“What’s £1,500 when they waste so much money?”
He added: “They only connected it up a few months ago. It’s underneath the railway arches.
“It’s there on the promenade if someone was to have a heart attack. There was a marathon there yesterday, with people running of all ages.
“If you consider that Colwyn Bay generally has the highest number of people over sixty than any part of Conwy, it is much needed.”
Streetlighting team
A Conwy County Council spokeswoman said: “The Old Colwyn Residents’ Association requested a quote from our streetlighting team for installing the defibrillator.
“We provided a quote of £1,330.76 (ex. VAT), covering plant, materials, and labour costs, in line with our standard rates.
“The Residents’ Association accepted the quote.
“This approach is consistent with other requests we have received for similar work.”
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It’s not enough just to raise funds to install a defibrillator there are ongoing costs of disposables like the leads and pads which have a use by date and the battery which needs to be replaced periodically depending on the model. The installation cost sounds reasonable to me. There is no comment about the funding of the electricity to keep it charged. In addition a credible person with suitable training has to regularly check that it works and keep a record of the checks. Part of this can be a digital photograph with metadata. Finally there is the question of… Read more »