Cheshire East Council is bidding for nearly £158k of government funding to install electric vehicle charging points in its towns, writes Belinda Ryan.
The council has identified sites in nine towns – including Snow Hill car park in Nantwich – as part of this phase to install charging points for residents unable to charge vehicles at home.
It has requested £157,580 from the Government’s Office of Zero Emission Vehicles, with £55,300 match funding to be provided by the council.
A report due to go to Thursday’s (July 21) meeting of the highways and transport committee states: “Proposed sites for the installation of charge points are a mixture of on-street locations and car parks that are conveniently located near to residential properties that do not have off-street parking.
“7kWh charge points are planned at each location in line with Government guidance, as these enable users to conveniently charge their vehicle for longer periods of time near to their residence.”
As well as Snow Hill car park in Nantwich, four charging point locations are proposed in Crewe – Wrexham Terrace Car Park, Bulkeley Street, Edleston Road Car Park and Hope Street Car Park.
Other locations planned are Fairview Car Park, Alsager; Antrobus Street Car Park, Congleton; Southway Car Park, Middlewich; Chapel Street Car Park, Sandbach and The Carrs Car Park, Wilmslow.
Two sites have been identified in Knutsford – these are King Street Car Park and Tatton Street Car Park.
Three locations have been identified at Macclesfield. These are Brook Street, Churchill Way Car Park and Whalley Hayes Car Park.
The report states: “The funding application was submitted to Government in March 2022 and has received an initial positive response, pending further detailed assessment of the application.
“Subject to the application being formally approved by Government, work will then proceed to engage local stakeholders, develop detailed designs, procure a supplier, and install the charge points by Spring 2023.”
Members of the council’s highways committee are being asked at Thursday’s meeting to approve delivery of the next phase of charge point locations [as detailed] to support residents who do not have off street parking, subject to formal approval of the application by Government.
(Stick pic by Ludovic Hirlimann, creative commons licence)
It’s honestly like no one who plans charge points has ever driven an EV. A 7kw charger is useless for anything other than top-up charging and ties up the charger for the entire time someone is in the carpark. Anyone local who needs to charge their car because they don’t have a hgome charger would need to leave their car overnight on the charger to fully charge. 7kw chargers are box-ticking to say there are chargers not useful for actually charging a car on a journey – after all this is what people have at home.
The existing Love Lane chargers are 50kw and that’s the MINIMUM that should be fitted – let’s push for 120kw or 300kw! These would be useful for residents not just shoppers and also make Nantwich and attractive place to stop for EV drivers looking for a fast charge.