The Isle of Wight is one step closer to a slice of a national fund for electric vehicle public chargepoints.
Earlier this month applications officially opened for the 1st round of funding for the government’s £343million Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) Capital Fund.
The aim of the LEVI fund is to deliver on-street charging infrastructure primarily benefiting those without access to off-street parking at home.
Local authorities will receive LEVI funding in 2 groups, with the 1st — which includes the Isle of Wight Council — able to apply for their allocated funding from now, to be distributed this financial year.
Should the LEVI capital funding be secured, the council plans to install an additional 150-200 sockets on top of those already in place to meet the growing demand.
Councillor Phil Jordan, the current Cabinet member for highways and infrastructure, has said:
“Many residents and businesses have already embraced electric vehicles, and we know that many more will be keen to do so over the coming years.
“Following the submission of our expression of interest for LEVI funding, we have now been invited to submit a application to access the funding as part of the first tranche.
Article continues below this advertisement “We will be working closely with key stakeholders to prepare the full application for submission at the end of November.
“This funding will help us deliver the vision and aims of our newly adopted EV Chargepoint Infrastructure Strategy supporting our residents with the move to electric vehicles.
“It will also help to enable the journey to decarbonise our transport infrastructure to meet net zero emissions by 2040 for both our communities and the increasing number of visitors with electric vehicles.
“Moving to electric vehicles, as well as reducing overall traffic levels, is vital to tackling air pollution.
“We are dedicated to making EV charging points accessible to all and to reduce the barrier for our residents in making the switch to electric vehicles.”
The council has installed 33 chargepoints across the Island — all but 1 are powered by green energy. The chargers are proving popular with Island residents with 6,609 charging sessions, more than 130,919 kilowatt hours of electricity drawn and 11,618kg of CO2 saved.
Of course, those installed on council land are only part of the overall network. Full details of all chargepoints can be found on the government’s website.
Ambulance service are going to be busy tending to people who have tripped over the charging cables
Does seem to be an accident waiting to happen. Would never connect my EV like this for that reason.
No worries, Health and safety does not exist on the Island.
Under the Highways Act 1980, Part IX Lawful and Unlawful Interference with Highways and Streets, it is illegal for any person to place or run a cable or wire along or across a public highway. So how does EV charging negate this Act?
I’m guessing you could also sue the person who is charging their car if you trip over their charging cable on a public pavement
Ooh.. likey… Will be on the lookout for pesky, dangerous cables…
In the real world (not photo opportunities for pathetic egomaniac councillors), the car would obviously be parked next to the charger.
That is some selective reading of the law. The whole paragraph says the following:
“No person shall fix or place any overhead beam, rail, pipe, cable, wire or other similar apparatus over, along or across a highway without the consent of the highway authority for the highway, and the highway authority may attach to their consent such reasonable terms and conditions as they think fit.”
I.e. the highway authority can give consent.
What is the island doing for the climate.
In many locations around the country owners of
Diesel Vehicles have to pay a premium or in some cases
their hourly parking fee + 50%
EV is the future, bring it on.
The island is a Dinosaur when it comes to anything
that helps the climate.
Think of peoples Lungs.
Also 20 is plenty, Wales have the right idea.
It saves lives.
I await the responses to this comment…. lol
You’re part of the diesel lobby setting up an open goal for the climate denying zombies. That is how weak their argument is, they need someone to setup an extreme contra argument in the hope of making a point. LoL.
The council has installed 33 chargepoints across the Island — all but 1 are powered by green energy.
what an utter load of crap – the electricity that actually comes out of the charging points is a combination of all electricity generated by fossil fuels, wind, solar, nuclear etc – the electricity grid doesn’t have the ability to segregate electricity generated by renewables, from the electricity generated by fossil fuels.
talk about spinning a whole load of BS to justify higher prices and green taxes. -gullible mugs if you believe that the actual electricity you get in your battery from a chargepoint is solely produced by renewable sources
Sadly, the Island is full of ‘gullables’, mostly Tory types ‘Jolly good show’ etc. Maybe these street chargers being supplied with ‘Green’ energy are actually going to have their own solar panels… You didn’t think of that, did you 🙂
martin – please, you are making yourself look daft – these things need to be able to charge a car, followed by another car, ad infinitum – a tiny little solar panel glued to the top won’t do the job, nor will it work at night, as there isn’t the battery storage capacity around to provide the electric generated by a solar panel during days when the sun shines
EV salesman?? Please check out China’s contribution to climate change…
It’s vital that we Stop Burning Stuff very soon, climate scientists and a casual glance at world news, show us the frightening consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels (yes that does include petrol and gas heating). Have a look at record sea temperatures which bode ill for next season’s global harvests. We must not let the government renege on its (already feeble) environmental commitments.
The CONservatives will promise anything, as long as it doesn’t affect their popularity at the polls.
But as soon as it does, (or reneging on agreements makes them more popular) it will all be pushed back and forgotten.
The only thing this lot are committed to is continuing their policy of transferring as much as wealth as possible, to themselves, their rich friends, and benefactors.
It seems that at the moment, the great British public are, in general, more interested in a few extra £ in their pocket, than people elsewhere having their lives ruined by climate-change induced extreme weather,.. & by that attitude, play right into the greed hands of the CONservatives.
Don’t panic too much Janet, it’s all aload of rubbish fed to gullible worriers like you! Wether you burn it or not, this world will use every single drop of fuel, so like it or not it’s going to happen and we all breathe the same air! don’t believe all the hype just crack on and burn it
Maybe do more than a ‘casual glance at world news’, especially from the likes of the BBC etc who are certainly not impartial in matters such as this.
Do your own research. Look at a number of different sources. Question them. Don’t accept what ANY of them say at face value.
You might come up with the same conclusion or you might find that what you’re being told doesn’t always stand up to a test of logic or common sense.
82% of global energy is currently supplied by fossil fuels, with 32% coming from coal. Renewables haven’t even made a dent in it, despite record energy production from renewables last year, due to growth in global energy demand.
people on the island who think that having an electric vehicle makes a difference are living in cloud cuckoo land – you do realise how much environmental destruction and pollution goes into digging up the minerals and metals to make an electric car battery don’t you and not forgetting that every time you plug it in to charge it up, the electricity has been generated by fossil fuel powered plants.
You are incorrect “islander”. Only 34% of UK’s energy needs came from fossil fuels last year and the percentage is decreasing rapidly.
Jeez hammy – do you even read – my message says “82% of global energy” not uk energy.
You can go sit in the dark then… and have a nice, cold house in the winter. I so hope you are campaigning against China’s gross pollution output and I assume you purchase NOTHING from there? Nimby
exactly zed – and of course the gullible mugs think they are buying green energy when they aren’t – the electric that comes out of the charger is from a grid that cannot segregate electricity generated by fossil fuels from that generated by renewables – so all those who think they are being green are actually using fossil fuel generated electricity, combined with renewable as well.
I hope the remaining council tax payers are not going to be expected to contribute to this crap, why should we have to pay for something we neither want or will use.
The lovely picture painted about ev’s is utter garbage as they use the worlds most polluting chemicals to make and their batteries are not even close to being recyclable at the moment.
Due to their excessive weight they put more rubber particles and brake dust into the environment.
I wonder whether back in the day petrol companies like BP, Esso & Shell got a public taxpayer slush fund to set up their petrol pumps?
Disgusting.
We’ve got elderly people with no care; homeless families; domestic abuse victims with nowhere to go; mental health services in rapid decline; children growing up in poverty. But hey, let’s waste money on NS green ‘initiatives’…. Gotta tick the ‘right-on’ box
This is just great, steer clear of these “mobile bombs”, but wait “Super Jordan” is on the case so we are surely in safe, but drunk hands.