Plans for a town centre "communication hub" including a public defibrillator and phone charging ports have been thrown out by a planning inspector.

Infocus Public Networks Limited had previously sought planning permission to put the hub at Haymarket Street in Bury town centre.

It would be close to the entrance of the Mill Gate Shopping Centre and within the Bury town centre conservation area.

The unit would 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.

The hubs would also have advertising screens. However, when the council rejected the scheme earlier this year the local authority's conservation team said the unit on Haymarket Street would be an "incongruous contemporising feature within the setting of the conservation area".

The decision notice from the council stated that the hubs would lead to the "creation of additional street clutter for an installation that primarily consists of an advertisement screen".

That decision was heavily criticised by a leading defibrillator charity as being "naive".

Now a government planning inspector has backed that decision and turned down an appeal against the council decision.

In a published ruling, inspector R Jones, said: “The proposal would have an acceptable effect on the setting of nearby designated and non-designated heritage assets, pedestrian safety and defibrillator provision.

“However, this does not outweigh the harm to character and appearance that has been identified to the street scene and Bury town centre conservation area. The appeal is therefore dismissed.”

When the original council decision was made in April, the father of a 12-year-old boy who died from a hidden heart condition said he was "dismayed" at the chance of a defibrillator in the location being turned down.

The Oliver King Foundation has helped install around 6,000 defibrillators alongside awareness training courses about the equipment.

The foundation was set up in 2012 following the death of 12-year-old Oliver King who died from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), a hidden heart condition.

Oliver attended King David High School in Liverpool and suffered a cardiac arrest whilst taking part in a swimming race.

Mark King, Oliver’s dad and founder of The Oliver King Foundation, said: “I am dismayed by the decision not to install public defibrillators in Bury town centre.

“I find this attitude incredibly concerning and fundamentally naive.

“More than 20 people die from SADS every week.

“Do human lives – and many SADS victims are young people – count for less than how an area looks aesthetically?”