Lifesaving equipment is set to be installed in Stafford town centre if plans are given the green light by the borough council.

Building society Nationwide has submitted an application to Stafford Borough Council to install defibrillator and bleed kit cabinets to the outside wall of its Greengate Street branch.

Bleed kits provide equipment to assist in dealing with incidents involving severe blood loss, such as stabbing or crush injuries.

A defibrillator can provide a shock to a heart to get it beating again if a person goes into cardiac arrest, providing assistance in the minutes before emergency services arrive on the scene.

A supporting statement submitted as part of the application said: "Nationwide Building Society are committed to supporting the communities they serve, with branches located at the centre of high streets across the UK.

"As part of this commitment to community wellbeing, they aim to install life saving equipment to some of their branches to ensure people have rapid, 24/7 access to vital emergency equipment whenever it is needed.

"As such, they plan to install external defibrillators and bleed control kits on some Nationwide branches.

"Each piece of equipment will be housed in its own dedicated, secure external cabinet.

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"Both cabinets are to be installed on the external walls of Nationwide Building Society branches.

"The cabinets need to be in a prominent location where they can easily be seen and, at a height where they can be reached in case they are needed in an emergency.

"We have proposed that the cabinets are fixed in locations that, whilst prominent, have limited impact on the appearance of the conservation area.

"The cabinets can be removed if they become redundant and the benefits of installing these cabinets are potentially life-saving so we consider that this outweighs any harm to the appearance of the conservation area."