A NEIGHBOUR stepped in to save the day after a housing association refused to let a resident have a lifesaving defibrillator on his wall.

RAF veteran Michael Thacker said he was baffled by Sovereign Housing’s claim it did not want tenants having to frequently check the cabinet on the property in Kennington.

Apart from the fact he was offering to do it, Kennington Parish Council – which is buying the device – would do all the checking itself.

The council has spent years trying to get four public defibrillators around the village so that no-one is more than 10 minutes from one, on the advice of South Central Ambulance Service. Mr Thacker’s house was in the ideal location for the last one and the council spent six months trying to get a reply from Sovereign only to be told “no”.

The housing association said it had “a number of concerns” about having a defibrillator on one of its houses, one of which was the fact the cabinet would have to be checked. It did not reveal what the other issues were.

Mr Thacker, 69, who lives in Poplar Grove, Kennington, said: “I’m disgusted, actually.

“There is no public defibrillator in Poplar Grove, the nearest one is in Playfield Road and without a car that is a trek and someone could be deceased in that time.”

Mr Thacker, who left the RAF as a senior aircraftsman in 1971, also knows first aid after he trained as a Community First Responder for the ambulance service.

The £1,400 to buy the defibrillator, which can save the life of someone having a cardiac arrest, was raised by another villager, Leo Boles, by selling cruise tickets.

Mr Boles said it was a “disgrace” that it had taken so long to find a place to install the device.

Kennington Parish Council chairman Colin Charlett called Sovereign’s decision “health and stupidity”.

He said: “The residents don’t have to do anything. I personally go around the village every fortnight and check on the other three defibrillators. All we do is check it’s fully charged, and I have the codes to get in the cabinets so no one else could get in anyway.”

Brian Vanstone, who lives across the way in Meadow View Road, heard about Sovereign’s decision, which he branded “health and barmy”, and offered his own garden wall.

The 78-year-old, who used to work for Oxford greengrocers Harold Hicks, said: “I don’t know quite why they wouldn’t let him have it, it doesn’t seem like a problem to me.”

Mr Charlett said the parish council had been delighted to finally have a home for the village’s fourth and final defibrillator.

If a thorough check shows Mr Vanstone’s house is definitely suitable, the council will pay for the installation and look after all maintenance.

The cabinet will have to be connected to Mr Vanstone’s electricity to keep it warm, and the council will pay the £30-a-year for that, too.

South Central Ambulance Service commander Dick Tracey, who has led an Oxford Mail-backed campaign to get hundreds more public access defibrillators across the county, said Kennington had set the bar that all other areas should aim for.

In the 18 months since he launched his campaign he said he had never once had someone refuse to have a defibrillator on their property, but he said it was fantastic news that an alternative had been found.

Sovereign spokesman Tim Abbott said the company “fully supported the idea” but added: “We have a number of concerns about having it installed on one of our houses, one of which is the cabinet would need to be accessed frequently to check the defibrillator.

“The resident may be happy for this now, we have to consider that a future resident may not be.”