Councillors Approve Electric Vehicle Strategy

A plan for futureproofed, accessible, and affordable electric vehicle charging has been agreed by Swale Borough Council.

Councillors have approved the council’s electric vehicle strategy, which outlines how they plan to meet the future demand for electric vehicles in Swale by creating a network of charge points that meet the needs of residents, businesses and visitors by 2030.

The EV strategy was approved at the council’s environment committee meeting last month (Thursday 30th June), the first since it moved to a committee system earlier this year.

Cllr Julian Saunders, chair of the environment committee at the council, told SFM News: “The electric vehicle strategy has been in the works for a while, and I’m pleased to say that we have a futureproofed plan that aims to provide the infrastructure we need to support the move to electric vehicles ahead of our target of net-zero across the borough by 2030. Of course, we have limitations that we must work around, but what we’ve got now is a plan we can start on as we continue to have conversations with Kent County Council and other key stakeholders. We don’t manage the local road network, so when finding solutions for on-street charging such as chargers on lampposts like you see in cities, we need to work with KCC to find and implement solutions. In the meantime, we’re installing council owned charge points in our car parks, which helps us keep charging prices lower for residents.”

Cllr Tim Valentine, vice chair of the environment committee at Swale Borough Council, told SFM News: “We’re delighted to have a strategy that outlines how we create the infrastructure needed as people make the move over to more sustainable vehicles. We’ll be focussing on areas with high levels of on-street parking demand, air quality management areas and solutions for rural areas. As part of the strategy we also agreed on how we move forward installing 18 new charging bays with funding we received from the Government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) in car parks near areas without driveways for charging.

He went on to add: “We received more than £100,000 from the OZEV and contributed £42,000 from our improvement and resilience fund, and plan to install new Pod Point charge points at Albany Road in Sittingbourne, Queens Hall in Faversham, and additional charge points at Rose Street in Sheerness. To meet the funding criteria, we’re installing 7kw chargers - which are suitable for a slow overnight charging - in our car parks by the end of the year.”

You can view Swale Borough Council's strategy at:- www.cee.swale.gov.uk/what-were-doing/planning.