Bury St Edmunds town councillors come together for Constitutional Club's defibrillator

The Bury St Edmunds Constitutional Club has installed a defibrillator outside its premises, with help from two town councillors.

The Guildhall Street club's new life-saving equipment was made possible after fundraising and locality budget assistance from councillors Patrick Chung and Sarah Stamp.

Neil Rayson, the club's manger, said: " One of our members Tracey Moss came up with the idea and obviously there has been a surge in places having defibrillators after the Christian Eriksen incident at the Euros.

"After talking to various people, we decided this side of town would benefit from having one especially as there are so many late night businesses near here such as pub and things, so we wanted to provide this for the community.
"Patrick and Sarah's support in helping us orchestrate this has been fantastic.

"The best case scenario is that it never gets used, but it is good that there is a piece of equipment here that may save a life."

Cllr Chung said he and Cllr Stamp had joined forces to help the town get more defibrillators as it was something they felt passionate about.

He said: "People say your locality budget is just for your ward, but I feel it should be used for the good of the town and that is what Sarah and I have done with this project as this is for the community and that is what, as town councillors, we want to look after."

Cllr Stamp said she felt the same way and that other places in the town should ask their councillors for help if they have similar projects.

She said: "The club is a great local organisation and obviously we need more defibrillators around town.

"Councillors do have these locality budgets for this very reason, which some bizarrely, struggle to spend sometimes - so we have these little pots of money for projects like this and Bury town councillors are happy to jointly fund stuff and work together for the better of the town - so please get in contact."