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Tim Golabek, Service Lead – Transport and Infrastructure, said that market engagement had recently taken place. Officers had met with 12 different operators of charging infrastructure to understand what was available to local authorities and what would be best for residents and businesses. An implementation plan would be created, this was currently being worked through and was planned for consultation in early autumn, with a decision by Cabinet to be made by the end of the year. In addition to this, six charging points had been installed across the borough, with three in Windsor. Research would be done to see if the points were being used as anticipated, electric vehicle charging was a growing market particularly with the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles in 2030. On locations, Tim Golabek said that ‘Zap Map’ was a useful tool which showed the locations of EV charging points. Funding was driven by central government, more information on this was available on the electric vehicle home charge scheme government website.

Councillor Luxton asked if there were any EV charging points being installed in car parks that were owned by RBWM. She also noted that there was nothing for the Ascot and Sunningdale areas of the borough, the charging points had so far only been installed in Maidenhead and Windsor.

Tim Golabek said that the locations depended on where there was space available, the roll out had started with Maidenhead and Windsor but other areas would also be considered in future, once further funding had been made available. Officers were looking at where EV chargers could be located in car parks, the Zap Map would show residents where the current locations were.

Councillor Luxton underlined that she felt Ascot she be prioritised. The Chairman added that Eton and Eton Wick should also be included for consideration.

Nicholas Warner, resident, felt that good progress had been made, he lived on a street which had an EV charger. He said that the locations of the chargers could be further apart as currently parking spaces were close together, there was the possibility that a car could block two EV chargers at one time. Nicholas Warner suggested that painted bays would help to prevent this problem from occurring. Another issue was the spaces were used by those who drove non-electric cars, so the EV chargers were not accessible and this needed to be taken into account by RBWM officers when the occupancy and usage of the EV chargers was considered. Nicholas Warner said that the EV charger spaces should be for electric vehicles only, or a time limit could be introduced. Visitors to Windsor needed more rapid chargers available for them to use, this in turn would help to attract more visitors.

Tim Golabek said that it was a balance when it came to making the spaces electric vehicle only. The council did not want to take away spaces where was significant demand but then it needed to make sure that the EV chargers were accessible and could be used. It was a balance, Tim Golabek said that he was happy to work with Mr Warner offline on the points that he had raised.

Councillor Tisi understood that areas of the borough where there were fewer driveways were prioritised, she asked if there were places like this outside of the town centre.

Tim Golabek explained that it would be part of the consultation plan, it was important to see what the uptake in EV chargers was before the number could be increased. Commercial providers could play a role in the future to ensure that the needs of all residents were met.

Councillor Tisi asked if RBWM was looking to work with private companies where car parks could be used out of hours to allow more residents to park and use EV chargers.

Tim Golabek said he would take the suggestion away and report it back to the team, a number of factors needed to be considered on this suggestion.

Councillor Cannon commented on the location of two of the EV chargers, they had been placed outside a residential care home where there was no spare parking capacity. A number of residents were not aware that the EV chargers were in place.

Tim Golabek confirmed that he would feed this back to the team. There was a conflict between parking spaces and access to the EV charging points.

Councillor Baldwin said that putting EV charging points in residential streets was not taking parking away from residents, it was giving residents in that street the opportunity to charge their vehicle.

At this point, Tim Golabek needed to leave the meeting. The Chairman advised that if there were any further questions that needed to be asked, they could be emailed to the officer after the meeting.