WELLINGTON Heath's dilapidated former phone box is to get a new lease of life as the location of a village defibrillator, a public facility which could save local lives.

In the days before mobile phones, many members of the public had to rely on public phone boxes to phone for an ambulance in the event of a medical crisis, such as someone having a heart attack.

Now Wellington Heath's red phone box could once again help to save lives, but in a completely new role.

A defibrillator is a device that gives a high energy electric shock to the heart, through the chest wall, to someone who is in cardiac arrest.

The idea of putting a defibrillator in the phone box is the brainchild of Wellington Heath Parish Council, which adopted the box in 2014, when BT planned to remove it.

Parish Councillor, David Williams said: "The phone box will still have a usefulness, and offer a potentially life-saving service; and the box will be refurbished. It's looking dilapidated at the moment."

He added: "We hope that 2018 will see it transformed and revitalised."

The total cost of the project will be around £2500, but the fund-raising ball is already rolling, with a £556 donation from the Farmers Arms pub: money which was raised through a New Year raffle.

The UK's famous red box boxes are national icons, which many people want to see preserved, even in an age of mobile phones.

Nearby Cradley has already turned its phone box into a defibrillator point, giving Wellington Heath Parish Council the lead it needed to press ahead with its own project.

The UK's famous red telephone box was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in the 1920s. It became a familiar and much-loved feature on streets throughout the British Isles, and also at Malta, Bermuda and Gibraltar.

A number of parish councils have recently taken on phone boxes, rather than see them being removed by BT.

The one at Ledbury Train Station was adopted by Ledbury Town Council, and it still functions as a phone box.