To receive the above update.

Sue Fox, Principal Commissioning Officer, stated there was a report that was due to be presented at the Highways, Transport and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel on the 19 November 2018 which would give Members a full update; the Principal Commissioning Officer summarised the main key points of the report below:

Ø  The Borough currently leased 13 petrol Mini’s

Ø  Cabinet had approved the replacement of the Mini’s with 10 electric or hybrid powered cars.

Ø  The current provider could only offer one type of car when the Principal Commissioning Officer was initially researching contracts but, now they could offer a service called Multi-Make which could be installed into any car, giving a wider choice of car and meant they could go out to market and get the cheapest deal.

Ø  The Principal Commissioning Officer was in the process of obtaining quotes for leases.

Ø  The Borough had trialled a Renault Zoe at the Tinkers Lane Depot which was well received.

Ø  The Borough was also trialling a Renault Kango van too.

Ø  The Council was tied in by delivery times but the Zoe was available quite quickly.

Ø  The current lease ran until January 2019 and that could be extended to a short lease if more time was required.

Ø  The Council’s HR team had been working on increasing the usage and mileage of pool cars and signing staff up to use them.

Ø  In terms of possibly setting up a car club, it was difficult for the Council to offer its own leased vehicles. However the Borough’s Joint Venture partners were looking at setting up a car club in the future and if that got up and running, the Borough could terminate its pool car contract and block book from the car club instead.

Ø  Charging points needed to be installed in the Council’s buildings such as in the North Yard and the Members Yard.

Ø  The Borough was looking to develop a charging hub at Tinkers Lane but that would need to be well managed to ensure the appropriate organisation paid for the electricity.

Ø  The Borough was also looking at installing on street/public charging points and there was a form on the Council’s website that residents could fill in and request a charging point. 22 requests for charging points had so far been received.

Ø  The Principal Commissioning Officer had visited Oxford City Council as they were trialling various types of charging points.

Ø  The Borough were progressing a site in Alma Road in Windsor and one in All Saints Avenue in Maidenhead. The sites were chosen due to there being no off street parking and the approach used was to create a neighbourhood hub to serve the whole street.

Ø  A lamp post column was replaced in Park Street, Windsor with a charging point installed in the base which would be on a pay as you go basis and one resident was already using it.

Ø  Another site being looked at was Meadow Lane in Eton where off street parking was limited.

Ø  The Borough was also looking at other locations where residents were happy to use their own supply but, cables dragged along the pavements – Oxford City Council had installed slot drains that stopped cables trailing which could be installed and that was a cost effective way of allowing residents to use their own electricity supplies.

Councillor Werner asked if residents would be allocated a parking space for electric charging. The Principal Commissioning Officer confirmed the trial being run by Connected Kerb did not allocate a specific space to a resident. A resident could leave their car in the space using a permit but it would also be pay and display for a limited time during the day. She added that was why neighbourhood hubs were a good idea as no one would lose a parking space outside of their house.

Councillor Werner commented a hub concept was an area preserved for e-cars. The Principal Commissioning Officer confirmed that was the case and that they would be located slightly away from properties but well within easy reach. Peter Howe stated it was not a good idea to install a charging point where someone lived as they might think it was theirs. No residents would be paying for the point and the parking space should be one that anyone can use if they wanted to charge their car. The Principal Commissioning Officer confirmed there would be no loss of residents parking.

The Principal Commissioning Officer stated alongside charging points, there would be a back office system so people could use an app. There were a number of operators offering apps, but the Council would be rolling out the scheme using one particular app.

Peter Howe, Connected Kerb, gave a brief presentation electric charging points and highlighted the following main points:

Ø  Peter Howe was the founding Chairman of Connected Kerb and he only looked at on street parking. Connected Kerb would not install a charger for just one resident.

Ø  By 2040, the UK would only be buying e-cars, although that was likely to be brought forward so Connected Kerb were looking to supply charging points for whole streets.

Ø  Connected Kerb installed fibre optics into the edge of the pavement, so when someone buys an e-car, they can plug into it; the sensors would be installed below ground with the plug above ground.

Ø  By adding fibre optics and power to the charging point made the points future proof.

Ø  A pilot site was already running with five bays that would be plated over so residents would not see anything different.

Ø  One of the charging points they used was called an Armadillo and the plug sat on the edge of the kerb with inbuilt wifi and was made of recycled, robust lorry tyre. The points had been tested and they won’t break.

Ø  The box that sat under the charging points held data and information as well as the fibre optics. The Alma Road site would use that type of charging point for five bays as part of the trial there.

Ø  In each bay there would be parking sensors and the app would tell people looking to park if the bays were free. Environmental sensors could be added which gave live up to date data on air quality and pollution.

Ø  Data cabling would be installed to hang the sensors from.

Ø  The market was changing rapidly and all mobility moving forward, such as car clubs, all required a serious amount of data; therefore, the fibre optics in each charging point made Connected Kerb future proof.

Ø  Connected Kerb had won a Mayors award for innovation and the first two sites in the country to trial the equipment were RBWM and Southwark.

Ø  The trial would go live at the end of November 2018 – however, SSE had not responded to requests to supply the electricity to the charging points but, Peter Howe was hoping that would be resolved by 15 November 2018.

Ø  As part of the trial, Connected Kerb were giving four residents the use of an e-car for free for three months in order to obtain data. The first four residents that applied would be loaned the cars with no cost to the residents.

Ø  Connected Kerbs main goal was to enable a whole street to use its charging points.

Ø  The Council did not need to install charging points until they had requests from residents but, the infrastructure would be in place ready.

Ø  Peter Howe did not believe people would buy e-cars if they had to drive to an Ikea or Tesco Superstore just to charge it; it had to be residential charging.

Ø  Peter Howe stated Southwark and Windsor and Maidenhead were the first two sites in the country to trial the charging points, he wanted to prove the system worked.

Councillor Werner asked when induction was likely to happen. Peter Howe stated induction would be widespread in the next five or six years. They would likely take the form of induction mats and the car parks over it, the mat recognises that and charges it. Councillor Werner stated he was concerned the charging points would stick out on the pavement like big lumps and that some pavements were very narrow in places. Peter Howe responded the points will follow the same lineage as the lampposts or trees already in situ and there would not be trailing cables from people’s houses. He added Connected Kerb could mount points onto existing posts so as not to add to the street furniture.

Councillor Werner asked why it had to be a socket that stuck out. Peter Howe stated it had to be 500ml above ground. Connected Kerb looked at trying to get the socket into the kerb but, it was too low and did not pass OLEV requirements. He added the RNIB had approved the charging points. By running the trial, Connected Kerb would get feedback from users. Peter Howe said Connected Kerb did not do a double head connection, residents would be able to choose what type of charge they wanted by using their app; a slower cheaper charge overnight, or a faster slightly more expensive charge for faster charging during the day.

Councillor Yong stated there were a lot of fraudsters that found new ways to grab data, she asked how residents data would be safe during collection and storing it by Connected Kerb. Peter Howe responded Connected Kerb was building the software and were ensuring it was safe and secure. He added data from residents would be about how long they parked and how much charge they took. There will be a payment taken and the data should be owned by the consumer. If the consumer could decide to share the data collected with a company such as BMW to obtain discounts. Councillor Werner stated the truth was that data wasn’t safe as all data could be hacked, a phone was always tracking a person’s movements.

David Scott, Head of Communities Enforcement and Partnerships asked where Connected Kerb would get their power supply from. Peter Howe confirmed it would be a new power supply, not taken from street lamps.

Councillors agreed it was a very exciting trial and thanked Peter Howe from Connected Kerb for his presentation.

v  Action – Sue Fox, Principal Commissioning Officer to invite the Panel to the launch of the trial when all the points are installed.