York City Council to propose new EV strategy

York council is set to introduce a new electric vehicle (EV) charging strategy to accelerate the uptake of EV’s across the city. 

A report detailing the proposal will be taken to a public Executive meeting on March 19 for approval. If approved, the council have said they will introduce Fast EV charge points to a minimum of 5% of council-owned long-stay car parks by 2023. 

The strategy also outlines plans to develop two Hyper Hub sites which will provide rapid charging facilities. 

This will cost the council an estimated £800,000 and will be subject to successful external funding bids. 

Part of the proposal is to also ensure that it offers equal opportunities for all EV users and to ensure that tariffs are set at a fair rate. The council will take into account increased electricity and running costs to ensure that the network is financially sustainable. 

Cllr Andy D’Agorne, executive member for transport at York Council said: ‘The EV Charging Strategy will provide a high-quality charging network that meets the needs of residents, fleets, through traffic and commuters.

‘To guarantee the best result for residents, we plan to continue to own our charging network.

‘This allows us to plan how the network will grow, set tariffs, makes us directly accountable and enables us to deliver next-generation chargers as quickly as possible.’

Cllr Paula Widdowson, the executive member for climate change at City of York Council, said: ‘We were one of the first cities to introduce a public electric network in 2013 and over the years this has become really popular. In 2014 there were 1,510 charging sessions, by 2018 that had increased to 13,695.

‘This strategy will provide a future-proofed network with high-quality facilities to support this increased demand.

‘Not only will it support the adoption of electric vehicles with associated air quality and climate change benefits, but it will also meet the needs of the next generation of plug-in vehicles.’ 

Last month (February 2020), Air Quality News travelled to York to meet Labour Cllr Jonny Crawshaw who first announced plans to ban all ‘non-essential’ car journeys from the city centre by 2023. 

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