Life-saving devices are coming to a host of villages near Oswestry.

Parish councils have been busy working with their communities to raise funds for automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that will be available in emergencies.

Kinnerley Parish Council has successfully raised more than £6,000 which will be used to buy two AEDs to be based at Kinnerley Parish Hall and Maesbrook Village Hall, and which are due to be installed later this month.

A third is planned for the telephone box in Knockin Heath which the council is adopting.

Chairman of the council Nick Barclay said: “I am absolutely astounded by how much has been raised.

“I thought we would be doing well to raise £2,000 for one device.

“Being a rural parish the population is quite distributed and ideally you should be within a few minutes of a defibrillator. So when the money started to increase, we had ambitions for two or three – and lo and behold, here we are.”

Meanwhile, Llanymynech and Pant Parish Council has continued its efforts to raise funds for three AEDs to be based across the two villages.

Councillor Dilys Gaskill, who chairs the council, said: “We are ready to order the first one which we will be at the village shop in Pant and we hope to have that up and running soon.”

Other defibrillators are planned for Llanymynech Playing Fields and The Cross Guns in Pant.

Members of the public can be trained to use AEDs, but the devices are accessible in an emergency when ambulance call handlers give out the access code.

The automated devices have pre-recorded instructions, telling people how to use them.