A LIFE-SAVING piece of equipment has been installed in the doorway of a central Fairford business, following the near death of a well-known councillor.

Popular town councillor and local man Trevor Hing collapsed in the Market Place earlier this year, due to cardiac arrest.

The people of Fairford had been calling for a defibrillator to be placed in the area well before this incident but Cllr Hing's close call made it even more of a necessity for the town.

The device has now been installed in the porch of The Bull Hotel, which can easily be accessed by the public 24 hours a day, unlike other defibrillators in the town.

The defibrillator delivers a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the heart when someone is suffering a cardiac arrest, such as Cllr Hing was in July.

He was saved by several nearby residents who rushed to his aid, one of them being 26-year-old Beth Davies, who was driving home from a first aid course and had the necessary equipment in her car to carry out CPR.

Bull manager Ian Summers said he is pleased the defibrillator is located at his hotel and in the centre of the town.

"We are the only business in Fairford that is able to be open every day of the week and have access at any time," he said. "I personally have wanted this for some time and I know many others in the town did also. Sometimes it takes an incident to get a life saving result."

Since the incident, Cllr Hing has proposed an ambitious idea to Fairford Town Council to see at least one person on each street in the town trained in the use of a defibrillator and CPR.

He said his plans are still in very early stages, but if they are successful, Fairford could be the only town of their size in the country to accomplish such a scheme.

An initial training session to use the defibrillator has been arranged to take place on Saturday, November 1 at 10am in the Barker Room of the town's Community Centre.