Unreliable electric vehicle charging points are leading to calls for the Isle of Wight Council to install new ones.
It is also hoped installing new and more charging points will encourage people to buy electric vehicles and move away from petrol and diesel cars.
While the presence of charging points has increased in recent years, only a few are on Isle of Wight Council owned land, with the authority receiving requests to improve facilities from Islanders and visitors.
The charge points in council car parks are not run by the council and are becoming ‘increasingly unreliable’, the authority says.
A charge point in St John’s Road car park, in Sandown, has been disconnected since last summer but the operator has not sought to reconnect it. There are also issues with the Chapel Street car park charger in Newport.
The authority says it is receiving an increasing number of complaints and is seeking to replace the points with a more reliable and user-friendly network.
Now, under the Central Southern Region framework launched by Hampshire County Council in 2018, the council can install 15 new chargers in 9 locations across the Island, providing 27 sockets, with no cost to the council.
It is thought leasing the chargers through the scheme could make the council around £6,500 a year, with no council investment needed or ongoing operational costs.
The council will have no control over how much it will cost people to use the charge points though but it hopes the market will keep the tariffs at competitive levels.
The Isle of Wight Council’s cabinet is being asked to approve the installation of the charge points at its meeting next week.
If it is given the go-ahead, the chargers could be installed and operational by the summer.
If the charging points prove popular, the cabinet is also being asked to allow senior council officers the authority to expand the charging point network, installing more, as demand grows.
The new charge points could be installed in the following car parks:
- Chapel Street, Newport
- Sea Street, Newport
- Seaclose Park
- Quay Road, Ryde
- St Thomas Street (upper), Ryde
- St John’s Road, Sandown
- Cross Street, Cowes
- Central Car Park Ventnor
- Moa Place, Freshwater
The Isle of Wight Council have today (Friday) announced that the above is subject to Cabinet approval next Thursday (13 January).
Initially, the points would be placed in Newport, Ryde, Sandown, Cowes, Ventnor and Freshwater. The plans will also see more points come online in future years as demand increases.
Cabinet lead for transport and infrastructure, Councillor Phil Jordan, said the scheme formed part of the council’s wider Mission Zero Strategy which sets out how the Island can be carbon-neutral by 2040 – ten years before the government target.
Councillor Phil Jordan added:
“Infrastructure has long been a barrier to the uptake of electric vehicles and these plans will start to see the beginnings of a growing network right across the Island.
“If passed, I look forward to working with town and community councils in all the earmarked locations before the points are installed to hear their views. Even better, all charge points are supplied with green energy so we can really start to make an impact on our carbon reduction strategy and encourage take up of electric vehicles.”
What a load of bull.
Electric cars are to expensive for the majority of folk.
And I have little or no sympathy for the people that can afford them.
Charge your cars on your private driveways. Money goes to money.
Bring down the price of petrol and diesel and scrap the green tax !
Wonders why the charge points that were installed were not maintained?
Maybe they were not being much and very little profit for the company that installed them, or they priced them too high.
Could also be that not many people actually have electric cars and those that do, have charge points at home.
Good, at last! Thank you!
This move is to be applauded – I have a hydrid vehicle ( bought because of the unreliability of public charging points) We have a home charging point- It ia rarely possible to find any (let alone working) points on the island at any destinations so very often return journeys are completed on petrol ( Hybrid vehiclesonly have a range of 30-40 miles) Perhaps a good idea also to encourage Wightlink and Red funnel to find a way of using the waiting time in their car parks or indeed on the ferry too for charging
Won’t be buying one anytime soon. Too expensive, too short a range, too inconvenient to fill when empty and too poluting.
“Infrastructure has long been a barrier to the uptake of electric vehicles” No, it is because they are vastly overpriced, and rapidly lose range, which is poor even when new. Add to that the massive build to scrap pollution of their toxic makeup. A battery car really has nothing to commend it.
People really hate change on this island, just because ten or so years ago electric cars were super expensive and new doesn’t mean they are now prices do come down but because you have a petrol car now doesn’t mean your car is going to disappear in 5 years.
Dear ‘Anonymous,’ We looked at changing our family car just last year and the cost for an electric vehicle was prohibitive – over 30k for a comparative model when our present car cost less than 18k. Many of us simply can’t afford that and that’s before you bring other factors into the equation e.g. battery life, range, charging times etc. At the moment, for many people electric vehicles are simply not a viable option.