Agenda item

Margaret Smith (Lead Commissioner - Transport Planning) informed the committee that central government set a ban for the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030; therefore, her team had been working on understanding what needs to be done for the public to have the relevant charging infrastructure to feel confident to be able to switch to electric vehicles. There had been significant changes in terms of the level of charging infrastructure that will be needed; this was done as a phased approach by 2025 initially and then by 2030. The modelling work done considered that a lot of people will have the availability to charge at home. This looked at the publicly available charging network that will need to be available for the public which was very high level, and it set out the amount of charges needed as well as the types of charging points so people are aware of the range of different charging point types (rapid and slow chargers). It was estimated that these charging points would cost £6million to implement in Warwickshire so the team were investigating the level of involvement needed from a local authority and what the private sector will provide. In the interim period, the team looked at how they could bring forward an initial roll out phase for Warwickshire’s town centres and car parks; the county partnered with the districts and boroughs to do this. The private sector was being worked with for on-street provision who do not control highway space; local authorities would step in here but the private sector would only provide these charging points if they are commercially attractive. Local authorities must look at this on a more equitable scale and ensure an even distribution. An uptake of electric vehicles is predicted following the ban, at the time of the meeting <1% of vehicles on roads were electric, this was expected to increase to 15% by 2025 and 40%< by 2030. An increase in electric vehicles should lead to a decrease in emissions which will help Warwickshire achieve net zero carbon. It was assumed Warwickshire’s vehicle fleet will grow by 1.5 so measures would be needed to try and achieve net-zero, like active travel for short journeys, public transport, car share etc. The council successfully obtained just over £800,000 in funds, including 25% from the private sector. The council partnered with BP Pulse who rolled out 160 charging points cross-county over the last 18 months. With rolling out charging points, Warwickshire is now ‘above average’ country wide as of January 2022. Work had been done to see how many charging points the private sector would provide and how many the local authority needs to provide. Initial data following the first rollout will show, the length of time that people are charge at charging points, the most used charging points, total energy used, and the carbon savings made; this data will be reportable on a quarterly basis cross-county and this data would be used to work on the next steps i.e. identify areas with the highest demand for public charging which would help to prioritise the roll out of charging points going forward. The options for procurement were being reviewed for delivery of further phases of roll out and bidding opportunities for further funding through central government were being investigated. A pilot scheme using streetlights as charging points was being investigated as a way to provide a slow overnight charge in residential areas that do not have off-street parking. This technology had been rolled out and worked successfully in other areas so whether this was possible in Warwickshire was being investigated.

In response to Councillor Fradgley, Victoria Mumford (Principal Transport Planner) stated that they were working through legal agreements to get lamppost charging points in Stratford, but this was taking longer than desired. Victoria Mumford agreed to share an installation date for these when known.

Councillor Tim Sinclair suggested a task and finish group (TFG) to monitor the rollout of electric charging points; the Chair seconded this subject to officer capacity. The group would look at rollout including sites and involve public user groups.

In response to Councillor Sinclair, Margaret Smith confirmed that they had a webpage that provided answers to FAQs from residents, the rollout had been problematic due to finding the correct sites, how time intensive this work was and the need to review the delivery model going forward. Margaret Smith added that they will look at having a panel of electric car users to see what the public wanted/needed.

In response to Councillor Chilvers, Victoria Mumford stated that paying for charging would either be paid with a subscription service (paying a set amount each month and having unlimited charging) or ‘trickle charges’ would be generally cheaper then rapid charging. A charger in a lamppost would cost roughly £1200 each or £10-£12,000 per car park, but this varied depending on price, site, hardware and connecting to the grid.

Following a question from Councillor Richard Baxter-Payne, Margaret Smith said that they would have more of an idea with rolling out the charging points after three to five months of assessing what needs to be done for it to work.

Following a question from Councillor Sinclair, Mark Ryder (Strategic Director – Communities) agreed to consult with Rob Powell (Strategic Director – Resources) to look at the Warwickshire Pension Fund investing in the private sector companies that rolled out the electric charging points as this was a question from the treasury management team.