The British Heart Foundation looks set to receive help from Maldon District Council in buying equipment to help heart attack sufferers in the Dengie area.

The leisure services committee recommended last week that £1,550 be given towards the cost of a £3,100 defibrillator after hearing that there were currently more than 13,584 people living in the Burnham Bradwell, Southminster, St Lawrence, Steeple and Tillingham areas.

Officers told members in a report that the numbers significantly increased in the summer months with visitors, and the ambulance station at Burnham was open for only 16 hours a day.

"If this ambulance is already out on another call, vital minutes can be lost in reaching heart attack patients," they said.

Cllr Robert Long said: "Other authorities have bought a number of these and we have been asked to provide one in the Dengie area -- one of our more isolated areas of the district."

Cllr Brian Beale said that it would also be a good idea to hear of Essex Ambulance Service's needs for other equipment in the Dengie and north of the district.

"We might learn a lot more about what equipment is required and what has been provided so we get a better understanding," he said.

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