Council progresses plans for electric vehicle infrastructure

Cheshire West and Chester Council has received good news regarding its Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure scheme.

The Council has now secured approval from the Department for Transport (DfT) to launch the procurement for a service provider (Charge Point Operator) to deliver the LEVI scheme.

The scheme is to support residents that lack off-street charging capability and provides funding to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles, plus the infrastructure required, to facilitate this for all residents across Cheshire West and Chester.

The scheme will see at least 800 public electric vehicle (EV) charging points installed across the borough over a five year period between 2025 and 2030. The charge points and charging bays will be designed to the latest accessibility standards.

In line with Council’s Electric Vehicle Strategy, public EV charge points will first be deployed into Council-owned car parks and then, in areas where residents live further away than a comfortable walking distance from a Council car park, so EV charge points will be deployed on-street.

Enabling the transition to EVs will help the borough to achieve its ambitions to reduce emissions from vehicles – which generated 758,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in the last reporting period (2022). Reducing these emissions will improve air quality and health throughout the borough, alongside tackling climate change.

Most installation activity is taking place in the first five years. It is expected that the procurement process will be launched in December 2024, with the first EV charger installations under this scheme expected to be delivered in 2025.

DfT approval releases £2,049,000 of government capital grant funding to acquire private investment from a Charge Point Operator, subject to a procurement exercise.

The Council’s Cabinet Member for Legal and Finance, Councillor Carol Gahan said:

“This is wonderful news and another step forward for our EV Strategy.

“This funding will support residents who have a lack of off-street charging capability. The funding will develop a public EV charging infrastructure network over the next 20 years across the borough, with around at least 800 public charge points spread across the whole borough.”