Plans for three Bury town centre "communication hubs" including public defibrillators and phone charging ports have been thrown out by the council.

Planning permission was sought to put the hubs at Haymarket Street and outside The Rock and Mill Gate shopping centres.

The units 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.

Communications firm JCDecaux said the hubs were designed to replace old-style enclosed call boxes and said their inclusion of a defibrillator in the unit design is "unique".

However, the council’s conservation officer Mark Kilby said the unit on Haymarket Street would be an "incongruous contemporising feature within the setting of the conservation area".

He added: “Defibrillators in the public realm would represent a public benefit, however their siting are not solely reliant on the proposed hubs and could be sited appropriately elsewhere within the conservation area such as on the side of buildings.

"As such the public benefit would not outweigh the harm identified to the character and appearance of the conservation area.”

The other two application sites were also refused planning permission.

JCDecaux have already established a network of the hubs in Manchester city centre and have 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.

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".