Council accused of being 'stingy' after funding less than half of community defibrillator project

Renfrewshire Council has been accused of being “stingy” after recommending a partial funding award to Kilbarchan Community Council for a defibrillator project.

The group applied for £3,800 from the villages investment fund as it looks to increase the number of devices in the area but will receive £1,600 instead.

The recommendation from the officer panel was ultimately approved at a meeting of the communities and housing policy board on Tuesday.

But Councillor Gillian Graham, a Labour representative for Kilbarchan, was less than impressed by the amount suggested for the community council.

She said: “I’m very disappointed about the decision to only award Kilbarchan Community Council £1,600 towards their public defibrillator project … It’s a tiny amount of money they’re asking for.

“This application has come from a series of CPR projects and sessions for the residents, public consultation and then realising there has to be an increase in public defibrillators.

“I say that because it’s a population of 3,500 and it’s also the oldest population in the authority.

“There are currently three defib machines across the village and that’s less than the neighbouring villages.

“They did the research, so looking to increase it to six isn’t excessive. I also think they should be congratulated for their work on this and I note that they haven’t come to the council cap in hand, they’ve actually fundraised to try and match fund this rather than saying, ‘We expect the council to pay for it all.’

“They’re also paying for the long-term maintenance. It’s potentially life-saving so halving the money requested feels stingy in the extreme.”

Laura McIntyre, the council’s head of policy and partnerships, responded: “In terms of the Kilbarchan project, the application did detail that the organisation had tried to look at different options around match funding and fundraising.

“The overall view of the panel was that while the application was strong and there was clear commitment from the group to undertake the work, it was felt that the application wasn’t potentially as strong as it could be in terms of a fit for the villages investment fund.

“But in light of the excellent work that the group have been doing and the excellent work, as you’ve mentioned in relation to fundraising and other things, there was a suggestion that a partial award be made in recognition of the project that’s being progressed.”

In a statement after the meeting, Fiona Stewart, chair of Kilbarchan Community Council, said: “The community council are extremely disappointed that despite the community asking them for more defibrillators to ensure coverage in the village, and the community council managing to raise several thousand pounds, Renfrewshire Council did not consider that this project merited the remainder of the cost of the defibrillators to be met and offered only part of the costs sought for this.

“There is still a shortfall of £2,000 which the community council will struggle to raise.”

A number of other recommendations, including awards to Houston Old School Trust, Howwood Community Council, Inchinnan Community Council and Bishopton Community Development Trust for other projects, were also rubber-stamped at the board.