County launches on-street electric vehicle chargepoints
12 Jul 2022 ARCHIVED (over 3 months old) - view latest news
A pilot of electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints is being launched as part of Northumberland County Council’s ongoing commitment to make electric vehicles more accessible.
On-street chargepoints have been installed at seven locations across the county including First Avenue in Ashington, Main Street in Felton, Parade car park in Berwick, Clayport Street in Alnwick, Westgate in Haltwhistle, Corbridge Main Street and Bellingham Centre.
The chargers are mostly suited to overnight charging for residents who do not have access to off-street parking (and therefore cannot have private chargers installed) but they can also be used for visitors to top up where needed.
The chargepoints represent the council’s first move towards ‘on-street’ curbside EV charging and if the pilot is successful, more of these chargepoints will be rolled out in other areas in the county.
Council leader, Glen Sanderson, said: “It’s fantastic to see the progress we are making with EV infrastructure in Northumberland. EVs are much better for the environment as they give off less pollution and greenhouse gases and it’s imperative that we look at more sustainable ways to get around our large and rural county.
“We know that there is still much more work to do in order to make EVs more accessible to more people in the county, but we are certainly heading in the right direction”.
Transport is high on the agenda as part of the council’s Climate Change Action Plan which aims to have 30% of cars in the county electric by 2030.
Local Councillor, John Riddle, said: “It’s great to see more sustainable transport becoming more and more widespread in the county. It’s so important we have EV chargers that are accessible to everyone and not only those people with off-road parking such as driveways or garages. I look forward to seeing these being installed in other areas in the near future.”
The official launch event took place in Bellingham Centre with Hexham MP Guy Opperman, local councillor, John Riddle and representatives from the council’s climate change team and installation company Connected Kerb in attendance.
Guy Opperman, MP for Tynedale and Ponteland said: “Northumberland County Council is doing brilliant work in extending our county’s EV infrastructure. It’s great to see more chargepoints becoming available, not only for our residents, but also for visitors to Northumberland. Having better provision for EV is a massive boost for our tourism.”
The chargers are supplied by London-based Connected Kerb and have been funded by the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) On Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) together with Northumberland County Council.
Chris Pateman-Jones, CEO of Connected Kerb, commented: “It is great to see Northumberland County Council take this initiative in providing charging for its residents who rely on on-street parking. Providing charging infrastructure in 'out-of-city areas', like Northumberland, is crucial to encouraging mainstream adoption of EVs, and to the UK’s wider net zero goals.”
Electricity from the charging points is 35 pence per kilowatt hour, the same rate as for other Northumberland County Council charge-points and charging takes take between five and seven hours.