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Agenda item

On-Street Residential Charge Point Scheme - Sites Decision

Purpose

To consider the business case for each site and consider the benefit of investing in Electric Vehicle Charge Point’s (EVCP).

 

Recommendations

That Cabinet resolves to:

1.    Agree to allocate £180,000 from the approved capital budget of £383,200 to deliver 24 EVCP charging bays across four district car parks, or,

2.    Agree to allocate £225,000 from the approved capital budget of £383,200 to deliver 30 EVCP charging bays across five district car parks, to include West Street, Tetbury and,

3.    Delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance allocate any additional funding from the capital budget subject to business case and the ORCS grant conditions for the above sites, up to a maximum of £7500 per charging point.

4.    Delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance to allocate funding and proceed with EVCPs at the Brewery car park, subject to ORCs approval for a change in site and allocation of grant funding, a viable business case and appropriate due diligence being carried out to ensure site can be delivered and comply with grant conditions.

Decision:

The Leader asked the Cabinet Member for Climate and Sustainability Councillor McKeown to introduce the report and recommendations.

 

Cabinet confirmed that it would be considering recommendations 2, 3 and 4 of the report.

 

Councillor Ind as an observer member was invited to comment.

 

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Mike McKeown and seconded by Councillor Paul Hodgkinson.

 

RESOLVED: That Cabinet

1.    AGREED to allocate £225,000 from the approved capital budget of £383,200 to deliver 30 EVCP charging bays across five district car parks, to include West Street, Tetbury and,

2.    DELEGATED AUTHORITY to the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance allocate any additional funding from the capital budget subject to business case and the ORCS grant conditions for the above sites, up to a maximum of £7500 per charging point.

3.    DELEGATED AUTHORITY to the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance to allocate funding and proceed with EVCPs at the Brewery car park, subject to ORCs approval for a change in site and allocation of grant funding, a viable business case and appropriate due diligence being carried out to ensure site can be delivered and comply with grant conditions.

 

Voting Record

 

6 For, 0 Against, 0 Abstention, 2 Absent/Did not vote

 

Minutes:

The Leader asked the Cabinet Member for Climate and Sustainability Councillor McKeown to introduce the report and recommendations. The following points were made:

 

  • The scheme was crucial to the Council’s corporate ambitions to help address climate change through actions taken in the Cotswolds.
  • Transport was the largest source of emissions within the District and it was important that these emissions were reduced. Electric vehicle adoption was therefore a key part of helping to meet this aim.
  • The grant scheme was designed to support residents who did not have off-street parking and were not able to charge their vehicle at home and to support the increase to the number of EVs through tourism.
  • There had been challenges to the rollout due to the limitations within the grant criteria and the timescales for chargers to be operational by March 2025 that were imposed through the scheme.
  • Scheduled Monument sites also featured within the car parks owned by the Council which required national approvals which would be challenging within the scheme.
  • Also connecting chargers to the grid had proved to be much slower than hoped for due to capacity restrictions.
  • Councillor McKeown thanked the officers involved for their hard work in helping to deliver the scheme.
  • Delegations would be given to examine four further sites in Cirencester and Tetbury subject to meeting the requirements of the grant scheme.
  • Tetbury was noted as a key priority for completion and the lack of public EV charging needed to be addressed beyond business case considerations in this area.
  • The Cabinet Member had also written to the new ministers within the Department for Transport and Department for Energy and Net-Zero to highlight the issues faced utilising the scheme for all councils and to suggest measures to speed up EV installation.

 

Councillor Joe Harris seconded and made the following points:

 

  • There was real frustration with the installation of electric vehicle charging at the Council Offices and other sites due to a range of factors from Government policy restrictions to false starts with suppliers.
  • It was also noted that this was a real challenge in terms of delivery but that officers were committed to delivering the scheme.
  • There was now a good level of charging facilities in Cirencester and Moreton but there was more work to do locally and nationally.

 

The Leader confirmed that Cabinet would be considering recommendations 2, 3 and 4 of the report and disregarding the option in recommendation 1. 

 

Councillor Ind as an observer member was invited to comment. The following points were made:

 

  • The challenge with Tetbury was that many of the car parks were not owned by the Council.
  • The Old Railway car park was on a long lease to CDC and there would be a query as to why that wasn’t included. It was noted that this could be another opportunity for the Council. The Leader responded that officers were looking at all sites but the proposals were currently the most deliverable.

 

Cabinet noted the need for the UK Government to work with councils to speed up the delivery of electric vehicle charging points and necessary infrastructure.

 

The recommendations as amended were proposed by Councillor Mike McKeown and seconded by Councillor Paul Hodgkinson.

 

RESOLVED: That Cabinet

  1. AGREED to allocate £225,000 from the approved capital budget of £383,200 to deliver 30 EVCP charging bays across five district car parks, to include West Street, Tetbury and,
  2. DELEGATED AUTHORITY to the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance allocate any additional funding from the capital budget subject to business case and the ORCS grant conditions for the above sites, up to a maximum of £7500 per charging point.
  3. DELEGATED AUTHORITY to the Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance to allocate funding and proceed with EVCPs at the Brewery car park, subject to ORCs approval for a change in site and allocation of grant funding, a viable business case and appropriate due diligence being carried out to ensure site can be delivered and comply with grant conditions.

 

Voting Record

 

6 For, 0 Against, 0 Abstention, 2 Absent/Did not vote

 

Supporting documents:

 

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