Plan lodged for new bleed kit and defibrillator at Newport town centre building society branch

A building society has applied for planning permission to install a defibrillator and bleed kit at its branch in Newport.

It is part of the Nationwide Building Society's recent pledge to house the emergency-use life-saving kits at all 605 of its branches. The rollout, which will see the kits installed from now until the end of the year, is in partnership with Visa.

Councillor Peter Scott (Independent, Newport West) has posted his support for the plan on Telford & Wrekin Council's planning portal.

"I support having a defibrillator and bleed kit box in the town centre," wrote Councillor Scott.

"Frankly the more the merrier."

Agents for Nationwide, which has its Newport branch at 29-31 High Street, have told the council that they consider that the benefits of the plan outweigh any harm to the conservation area.

The equipment would include Nationwide's branding.

Planning agents for the company wrote: "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."

Council conservation and historic environment experts will be consulted as part of the council's decision-making process.

Nationwide says it is Britain’s biggest building society, and has more branches than any other banking provider after overtaking Lloyds Banking Group.

It has promised to keep all branches open until at least 2030.

The plans can be seen on the Telford & Wrekin Council planning portal (reference number TWC/2026/0379).