Nationwide has applied to put a 24/7 defibrillator and a bleed control kit by the Cricketers bus stop on Rainham High Street. Comments close 4 September.

Rainham High Street is in line for a public defibrillator and a bleed control kit, both available around the clock, after Nationwide Building Society applied to Medway Council for permission to install them on the pavement outside its branch.

The application, MC/26/1508, was validated on 10 August. It covers a standalone frame carrying two separate secure cabinets, one for a defibrillator and one for a bleed control kit, sited on the pavement fronting 82 to 84 High Street, next to the Cricketers bus stop outside the Luke Hurst furniture shop.

The reason it needs a frame rather than a wall bracket is set out plainly in the applicant’s planning statement: the Rainham branch “does not have sufficient space on the external elevation for both the Defibrillator and Bleed Kit cabinets”.

Why it is going next to a bus stop

A defibrillator cabinet needs mains power to stay heated and lit. The statement explains that Nationwide has an agreement with Bauer Media, which owns and operates bus shelters, and that in selected locations the frame is put next to a shelter so the bus stop can supply that power. Rainham is one of those locations.

The frame is to be finished in Nationwide’s blue, which the applicant argues keeps it visible in an emergency and tied to the branch. The statement acknowledges the conservation area setting and argues that “the benefits of installing these cabinets are potentially lifesaving so we consider that this outweighs any harm to the appearance of the conservation area”. Medway’s conservation areas include Rainham. The council’s own constraint record for the application also places the site inside the Rainham core retail area.

The applicant says it has served notice on the highway authority, and that because the frame sits beside an existing shelter the effect on pavement space should be negligible. The cabinets can be removed if they become redundant.

The agent is A&Q Partnership (London) Ltd. The case officer is Amy Shardlow, the ward is Rainham North, consultation closes on 4 September and the council’s target date for a decision is 5 October.

Bleed control kits are the less familiar half

Most people now recognise a defibrillator cabinet. A public bleed control kit is a newer idea: a sealed pack holding tourniquets, haemostatic dressings and shears, intended for catastrophic bleeding from an accident or an assault before an ambulance arrives. Putting one on a high street alongside a defibrillator is still relatively unusual in Kent, and this application would give Rainham both on the same frame.

If someone collapses, here is what actually happens

Three steps in a suspected cardiac arrest: call 999; start CPR with the call handler guiding you; the call handler tells you where the nearest defibrillator is. Survival chances fall by 10 per cent for every minute without CPR and a defibrillator
Graphic by Medway Live.

You do not need training. The Resuscitation Council UK says a defibrillator “is easy to use and doesn’t require training”, and that it “will not harm the person suffering a cardiac arrest and will only give them a shock if and when it is needed”. When you call 999, the ambulance call handler talks you through CPR and tells you where your nearest defibrillator is. The same guidance sets out the reason speed matters so much: “For every minute that someone’s in cardiac arrest without receiving CPR and having a defibrillator used on them, their chance of survival decreases by 10%.”

That last point is why the location of a cabinet is not a detail. A defibrillator two minutes further away is measurably worse than one on the high street.

For the call handler to send you to the right place, the device has to be on the national register. South East Coast Ambulance Service, which covers Medway, asks owners to register with The Circuit, saying it “will ensure that we can continue to direct members of the public to your defibrillator”. Worth checking that this one is registered once it is in.

What it means for you

If it is approved, Rainham gets two pieces of emergency equipment in the middle of its shopping parade, available at any hour, without needing the branch to be open. That is the practical point: a device locked inside a building that shuts at 5pm is no use at 9pm.

Comments on the application can be made through the Public Access portal until 4 September. The drawings, including the cabinet visualisation and the proposed location plan, are on the documents tab.

New applications across the district are listed on our Medway planning applications page.