Formal agreements regarding installation of council-owned defibrillators on buildings

Question

Our parish council owns and is responsible for the arrangements and costs of management and maintenance of three defibrillators – they are included on the list of assets of the council.

Two were gifted to the council by a resident several years ago, but are now the property of the council which is responsible for their upkeep, electrical connection, replacing pads and batteries etc all of which have to be paid for out of the council's precepted monies.

To date one defibrillator has been installed at the village primary school in the village centre, another is on a private dwelling on a public walking route. 

It is intended to install a third defibrillator, which was bought by the parish council last year, on a privately-owned property near the railway station.

In order to clarify ownership and accountability for all three defibrillators, I and another member of the council have put forward the following resolution at our next council meeting to next Thursday evening:-

 Resolution

That the current informal arrangements regarding all three defibrillators owned by  the parish council be placed on a proper legal footing which would be to the benefit of all concerned, and would comply with the parish council’s duty to meet its legal and audit obligations.

 We intend to provide a short report to the meeting, so are researching the position of other town and parish councils around the country to find out what formal arrangements they may have made regarding council-owned defibrillators installed on public and private buildings for the benefit of their community.

Has anyone dealt with this situation or have any examples of agreements to put their defibrillators on a proper legal footing please?

Answer 1

My current council has two defibrillators which are installed on premises which we do not own.  We simply sought permission from the building owners (one was another authority and one was a private property), documented that permission (a simple letter in one case and email in another) that permission had been granted and that was that.  No legal agreement was thought necessary in either case.

My previous council had a similar arrangement with the village hall where the defib there was installed.  Again, simple exchange of letters/emails confirming permission was all that was felt necessary and it hasn't caused any issues.
In both cases, the council confirmed it would provide for the upkeep/maintenance of the defib although now locally an individual routinely inspects and reports back to the council if anything needs doing (new pads had to be purchased fairly recently as the old ones were out of date).  It has not proved onerous or expensive.

Answer 2

Our Council has done exactly the same as Delboy'swife. We have defibs on private property but simply sought the written permission of the property owners. We also have one in an old telephone box which we bought from BT at a cost of £2. We take care of all the upkeep, batteries etc.

Comments

Was this arrangement approved by the council's insurers?

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Are you talking about the defibs or the telephone boxes Whinnie? The defibs are covered by our insurance.  By their very definition the need to be accessible by the public, one is on the postoffice exterior for example. The telephone boxes are not insured as far as I know. The only thing that could happen to them (apart from some disaster) is the glass getting broken. We'd have to pay for that anyway as would not be more than the excess.  We have 3, one contains a defib, one I have adopted and turned into a book swap. The last one was due to be adopted by a community group, but that has now ceased. So it will be advertised as up for adoption again.

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Thanks for the information. I was asking about insurance cover for council-owned defibrillators installed on private properties where a formal legal agreement might apply to ensure that all bases are covered to the benefit of both the council and the property owner. Has any council taken advice from their insurer re proper documented agreements between parties?