The Climate and Ecological Emergency Project Officer introduced the report which set out the draft Electric Vehicle Strategy 2022 – 2030, which aimed to clarify the Council’s position on EV charging infrastructure, addressing the balance between current demand for charging infrastructure and the ambition to ‘lead the way’ in addressing the Climate and Ecological Emergency.  She said the overall priority was to make EV charging accessible for all residents.

Members raised comments and asked questions which included the following:

·         With reference to paragraph 2.5 in the report, concerned about Kent County Council’s (KCC) approach to on-street charging;

·         supported businesses receiving a decrease in their business rates to have charge points on their land;

·         taxi charge points were not the same price structure as the system used by the Council;

·         needed to consider both the capacity for more EVs to be bought and the infrastructure for EVs to be charged up;

·         the strategy needed to address the difficulty for residents in terraced housing and flats, particularly if they were leasehold; and

·         older properties were often not able to facilitate a charge point.

The Head of Environment and Leisure responded to the points raised:  there were a lot of trials taking place and KCC wanted to stand back for the moment and see the results of the trials before they stepped in; the Council would continue to work with KCC and the strategy would be regularly refreshed to work alongside changes in the EV industry; there was always over demand for parking in areas where there were terraced housing, however EV ownership in these areas remained low; supported the installation by Pod Point Limited as the Council could set the tariff, decide a maintenance plan and make changes when there were improvements to the equipment; the taxi charge points were supported by SBC and KCC, but done under a different model where KCC allowed the EV charger company to install and set tariffs so there was no control of pricing by SBC; the car parks that had been chosen for the charge points were near areas where there was a higher proportion of EV requirements for off-street parking, with no charge for parking, just for the actual electric charge of the vehicle; discussion on the issue of flat owners not being able to charge their vehicles could be picked-up in the next review; and acknowledged the difficulties of retro-fitting older properties to enable them to have a charge point.

The Climate and Ecological Emergency Project Officer explained that the strategy would need to be updated as there was a scheme to assist flat owners with charge points.

The Vice-Chair explained that cable gullies could be introduced from a resident’s house to the roadside for charging, but this was a difficult situation as residents did not have the right to park outside their house; new-build flats did have charge points; there was possibly little motivation for freeholders to install charge points in existing flats; the private sector was likely to increase the installation of charge points, at locations like shopping centres and petrol stations and this could be beneficial to flat dwellers; and it was important to have consistency on payment options for users to make it as straightforward as possible.

Resolved:

(1)      That the Electric Vehicle Strategy 2022 – 2030 be adopted.