Communication hubs set for Bury town centre include phone charging points and defibrillators

‘Communication hubs’ including defibrillators and phone charging ports are set to be installed at three spots in Bury town centre. Planning permission is being sought to put the hubs at Haymarket Street and outside the Rock and Millgate shopping centres.

The units offer free calls to landlines and range of functions that include free Wi-Fi, a 32-inch touch screen with access to local webpages, a publicly accessible defibrillator and both USB and wireless device charging ports. Communications firm JCDecaux said the hubs were designed to replace old-style enclosed call boxes and said their inclusion of a publicly accessible defibrillator in the unit design is ‘unique’.

They have already established a network in Manchester city centre last and collaborated with the Great Manchester Police and the Mayor’s office who regularly use the advertisement screens to promote safety campaigns and the Mayor’s homelessness charity campaign by providing the means to make donations using a QR code on screen.

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The planning application for the three sites, said: “We have been surveying the centre of Bury to identify suitable locations and identified three potential sites in the busiest and most suitable thoroughfares where people or most likely to see and use the hub facilities offered.

“The traditional role of the phone box is ill equipped for the modern digital environment. The multifunctional hub unit has been designed to bring this public service up to date and present the next generation of communication
provision that gives more to the public and can contribute to the vitality of city and town centres.

“As this project is driven by the Mayor’s ‘heart-safe’ campaign with the aim of