Defibrillator to be installed at Portsmouth and Southsea Railway Station

The installation of the life-saving machine is part of a South Western Railway (SWR) project to roll-out the equipment to more than 150 of its stations this summer. Although planning permission would not normally be required for this kind of work, as the station is Grade II-listed, listed building consent was needed from the city council and this was granted at the end of July.

“Much of the historic value in the building is contained on the primary frontage, such as the canopy, the fenestration and accompanying details: the clock and the metalwork atop the roofs,” the report approving the scheme said.

“As such, the addition of further detritus, whilst failing to preserve/enhance the heritage asset, is not considered to cause further harm in of itself.

“This, when weighed against the significant public benefit of providing a lifesaving piece of equipment in a busy area, results in a planning balance in favour of the development.”

South Western Railway’s campaign will see defibrillators installed at each of the 154 staffed stations it runs and more than £500,000 has been spent on the project.

Announcing the campaign earlier this year, the company said it was aiming to complete the roll-out by the end of the summer.

“Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome (SADS) and other heart conditions can impact us all,” Claire Mann, its managing director, said. “As part of SWR’s commitment to the local communities we serve, I’m so pleased that we are installing defibrillators at every single one of our staffed stations, which could very well prove to be lifesaving.”

The campaign was launched in March with the installation of a defibrillator at London Waterloo station in conjunction with the naming of a train after the Alex Wardle Foundation which was set up in memory of Alex Wardle, a medical student and son of an SWR operations trainer, who passed away from SADS in 2016.