Cabinet considered approval to consult on a draft Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Implementation Plan.

Councillor Haseler, Cabinet Member for Planning, Parking, Highways and Transport,explained that officers had been working hard to complete the draft plan, which was very close to completion. The Cabinet paper covered the key aspects, and the draft plan would be shared with all Members prior to the public consultation. Bringing the paper before Cabinet at the meeting would allow the public consultation to take place in November, completing in December, with the final plan coming back to Cabinet in January. This avoided a public consultation over the Christmas period.

Councillor Haseler highlighted that the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK would end in 2030, as set out in the 2021 national Decarbonising Transport strategy. Earlier in 2022, in ‘Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy - Taking Charge’, the government tasked local authorities with developing local strategies to ensure the necessary infrastructure would be in place to support the transition, with a particular responsibility for developing a network of chargepoints on local authority streets. It was projected that half of all cars and vans in the borough would be electric by 2035, rising to virtually all such vehicles by 2040. Increasingly, the borough’s residents, businesses and visitors would need and expect the infrastructure to be in place to support electric vehicles.

Whilst the majority of charging would take place on residential driveways and in fleet depots, there was a need for the council to support the delivery of chargepoints on land that it managed, on streets and in council car parks. The plan would fully support the Corporate Plan to create a sustainable borough of opportunity and innovation and the priorities for quality infrastructure and to take action on climate change.

With regards to on-street and public car park chargepoints, it was estimated that the plan would require an investment of around £5 million in chargepoint infrastructure over the 10-year plan period. This would be funded initially by chargepoint operators and government ORCS and LEVI grants. Early supplier engagement had confirmed that the plan could be delivered without any capital

investment from the borough, and with existing staff resources.

Optionally, the borough could invest capital from CIL or other sources in the provision of chargepoints. The benefit being that chargepoint operators typically offered a share of profits if local authorities invested their own capital. In such an agreement, the operation and maintenance costs of the chargepoints were met by the chargepoint operator. Returns for the council would initially be very modest, but by 2033 a combination of increased chargepoint profitability from there being more electric vehicles on the roads and the significant number of chargepoints that would be in the borough by that time, created an opportunity for the council to benefit from a significant new income stream. This was estimated to be worth between £250,000 and £500,000 per year to the council, dependent upon the scale to which the council had invested.

Providing chargepoints on street and in car parks would involve contracts with chargepoint operators. There was considerable flexibility about the type of contract the council could enter into, and the plan left the council open to making individual contractual decisions each year of the plan, which would be made with input from the council’s procurement team. The details of any contract would be presented for approval at the time they were proposed to be taken forward.

The plan proposed awarding concessions in annual batches over the plan period, with a target of introducing around 75 chargepoints per year. This would give flexibility each year for the council to decide whether, and to what extent, it would invest capital in that financial year. The concessions awarded would be subject to an evaluation of options and best value at the time they were made. It was not necessary for the council to commit to a single chargepoint supplier for the full plan period.Any decision to invest would be subject to a business case at the time, as well as the usual capital project and budget approval process for the year.

Councillor Haseler encouraged residents to actively participate in the consultation so that the plan could be refined and improved as a result of the comments received and ultimately adopted in early 2023.

Councillor Hilton seconded the proposal. He believed that residents would welcome the opportunity to comment on the plans as more chargepoints were wanted across the borough, particularly where there was no off-street parking.

Councillor Haseler confirmed that he would expect chargepoint coverage across the borough. Naturally there would be more chargepoints in the larger towns but the villages would not be overlooked. Locations would be designed in batches of, for example, six sites, with the chargepoint operator choosing five locations and the council reserving the right to determine the sixth location

Councillor Stimson felt the element of flexibility was important to ensure the right chargepoint operators were chosen each time as circumstances could change. Councillor Haseler commented that he would like to see multiple operators in the borough; 12 had already been engaged with to obtain information to take the paper forward.

Councillor Rayner commented that the proposal demonstrated excellent progress in making the borough more sustainable. Residents in Eton and Windsor were keen to buy electric cars but needed the infrastructure in place for charging. She liked the plan to work with the private sector to ensure workplaces, depots and points on route were included.

Councillor Sharpe highlighted the need to work with contractors to ensure maintenance was undertaken regularly and issues fixed quickly. In the south of the borough there were large areas of Victorian housing with no off-street parking. There was a need to ensure the rollout was evenly spread so all areas benefitted. He also suggested builders and developers should be encouraged to include chargepoints in all new developments.

Councillor Johnson commented that one of the key requirements was close cooperation with the utility provides in terms of connection and supply rates, to ensure there was no lag between installation and connection.

Councillor Baldwin commented that he was concerned about the consultation. Throughout the trial there had been no Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) to reserve spaces for electric vehicles. He had been in discussions with officers over the difficulty of wording TROs to allow for a phased Ringo-style option for electric vehicles. He wanted to ensure that residents were presented with realistic options. There were six chargepoints in Lower Boyn Hill Road which were often occupied for days by station parkers, making them inaccessible for electric vehicles. He requested that the consultation include sufficient questions that were not just push questions and sufficient flexibility of options to allow coherent responses.

Councillor McWilliams joined the meeting.

Councillor Haseler confirmed that parking restrictions on chargepoints would be a strong consideration.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet notes the report and:

i)          Delegates authority to the Head of Infrastructure, Sustainability & Economic Growth Service in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Planning, Parking, Highways & Transport to approve the draft plan progress to public consultation