Decision details

Vehicle emissions are one of the biggest contributors to carbon production across the borough . As such, the Council is striving to encourage the switch to electric vehicles as far as possible by aiming to have the most electric vehicle charge points in London before the end of 2021/22 (increasing from 580 to 2,000 charge points). This is vital to achieving the Council’s target of net zero carbon by 2030.

This report recommends the installation of 1,420 new electric vehicle charging points across the borough by 31 March 2022 at a maximum total cost of £2.7m (148 of these charge points are already planned and funded). It is expected that these capital works will be fully funded by external grant funding. Confirmation of this grant funding is not expected until the end of December 2021. To allow the installation work to begin with immediate effect, it is recommended that the Council commits £2.7m of interim funding from the current parking account surplus pending confirmation of the external grant.

Reasons for urgency:

Vehicle emissions are one of the biggest contributors to carbon production across the borough  . As such, the Council is striving to encourage the switch to electric vehicles as far as possible by aiming to have the most electric vehicle charge points in London before the end of 2021/22 (increasing from 580 to 2,000 charge points). This is vital to achieving the Council’s target of net zero carbon by 2030 and the work must be started immediately to achieve this target.

1.    To approve a capital budget of £2.7m to be funded from expected external grant funding and if grant funding is not received or insufficient, to delegate final decision on funding to the Director of Finance in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Finance and Commercial Services.

2.    To approve the installation of 1,268 new electric vehicle charge points across the borough by 31 March 2022 using the Council’s existing term contract with FM Conway.

Reducing vehicle emissions is vital to achieving the Council’s net zero carbon target by 2030. A decision is required to allow the installation works to commence in advance of confirmation of the external grant funding as supplies of the unit are in high demand with other councils and an advanced orders is vital to delivering the EV charge points to keep us on track to meet the climate change challenge in good time.

1.    Do nothing is not an option as measures need to be put in place to promote switching to electric vehicles.

2.    Installing bollards and specific EV charge cabinets – the amount of work involved to install charge point bollards and cabinets are intrusive and very costly, so this is not a feasible option.

3.    Converting the lamp columns to EV charge points – conversion of lamp columns to fix EV charge point to the lamp column has been rolled out which is less intrusive as no excavation of the highway is required, lamp columns are accessible from parking bays so converting more lamp columns to add charge points would be the most feasible and practical option.