RESIDENTS at a sheltered housing block have rejoiced after a life-saving defibrillator was finally installed after an "18-month battle" with the housing association.
Residents have thanked The Bridport News after the issue was raised in a previous story in March.
Vernons Court is located just off South Street near the town centre and is managed by Magna Housing Association.
A Vernons Court Residents Association has been set up to deal with residents' 'growing dissatisfaction' at the housing complex in west Dorset.
As previously reported, the group's chairman, Chris Chantler lambasted Magna's failure to purchase a defibrillator for Vernons Court, claiming the operator put this down to an 'insurance problem'.
Mr Chantler said residents had been told the defibrillator would not be installed and the project had been scrapped.
However, seven months later, a defibrillator has now been installed in the housing block.
Mr Chantler said the article in The Bridport News led the housing association to make a u-tun on their decision just days after the story in March was published.
He said: “It is all thanks to the Bridport News.
“Three days after the article was published, I got an email saying there had been a communications error and the defibrillator project was postponed and not cancelled.
“We were told it was gone it was gone."
The defibrillator becomes the third of its kind to be fitted in Bridport.
Mr Chantler said: “This can save someone’s life.
“My main concern is for the sixty residents of Vernon’s Court but it is also good for the residents around us.
“There are now three defibrillators in Bridport; here, the football club and safeways. That is good coverage for the town.
“It is a no-brainer, in an ideal world, there would be one on every corner."
The funding for the defibrillator came from a pot of money which makes up part of the rent for the residents of Vernon's Court.
Chris added: “We have paid for it out of our own funding – it is included in our rent.
“We had 22,800 sitting dormant in an account between 60 residents, I wanted to spend 2,000 of it on a defibrillator, we weren’t even asking Magna to pay for it.
“I am so pleased and I hope it never gets used.
“If it does, I hope it saves someone’s life. It would be worth the 18 months we waited for it."
Christine Boland, Head of Customer and Community Support for Magna, said: “We’re pleased to have worked with our customers at Vernons Court to help choose and install a defibrillator at the scheme.
“Following a request to buy a defibrillator in February, we consulted with customers to choose a suitable one that can be mounted outside and logged with the emergency services so the community can use it.
“Once it was ordered, we’ve followed a process to make sure all defibrillators at our schemes are registered on the national network, known as The Circuit, and that staff and residents are trained in how to use them.
"We then arranged for an external electrician to install the defibrillator, which we’re happy to say is now in place.”
A spokesperson for Magna Housing said: "We have 18 defibrillators at Magna schemes across Dorset and Somerset and are arranging for them all to be registered on the Circuit.
"We are also arranging for several of them to be mounted in external cabinets so they can be available to the community as well as our customers."
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