A Vale of White Horse village and its ability to respond to emergencies is being supported by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) through funding for life-saving equipment.

Shrivenham Parish Council was awarded £1,165 to purchase and install a defibrillator in a repurposed telephone kiosk through SSEN's Resilient Communities Fund (RCF); run by the distribution operator to help charities and community groups to address areas of vulnerability and boost the resilience of their communities, especially in instances of emergencies and adverse weather events.

The new defibrillator station is easily accessed by Shrivenham residents - and visitors to area - in its position near the Memorial Hall and recreation ground at the junction of Highworth Road and Stallpits Road.

Gareth Shields, SSEN's Community Investment Manager said: "This kind of equipment has proven to be popular in rural areas, which can be hard to access in severe weather, even for emergency services."

"The British Heart Foundation states that for every minute it takes for a defibrillator to reach someone and deliver a shock, their chances of survival reduce by up to 10%, so SSEN is pleased to have been able to help support Shrivenham Parish Council in its purchase of this equipment."

Shrivenham Parish Councillor, John Lloyd was instrumental in obtaining the RCF award for the village. He said: "'Shrivenham's second defibrillator will help to cover a wider area in an expanding village."

"It was funded equally between Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks' (SSEN) Resilient Communities Fund and Shrivenham Parish Council, and we're delighted to have been able to boost the potential to save lives in our village with this emergency equipment."

This is the fifth year of SSEN's Resilient Communities Fund and during this time SSEN has provided £1.572million of funding to 216 projects. Set up in 2014 as a two-year pilot scheme, SSEN has pledged to extend the fund to 2023 using a proportion of the income it receives from the industry regulator Ofgem in relation to its stakeholder engagement performance.

For the 2019/20 Resilient Communities Fund, awards were extended to support projects which aimed to achieve one of the following criteria:

  • Vulnerability - to protect the welfare of vulnerable community members through enhancing their resilience and improving community participation and effectiveness.
  • Resilience for Emergency Events - to enhance community facilities, services and communication specifically to support the local response in the event of a significant emergency event.

SSEN's Resilient Communities Fund will re-open for applications in the spring of 2020. To find out more about the fund, please visit the website: www.ssen.co.uk/Resiliencefund/.

To check who your network operator is and to see if you would be eligible for funding through SSEN's Resilient Communities Fund, please visit ssen.co.uk/whoismynetworkoperator.