information from West Suffolk Council
You may be aware that West Suffolk Council declared a climate change emergency in 2019 and Cabinet agreed an ambitious environmental action plan in July 2020, that included establishing more Electric Vehicle infrastructure to support residents and businesses in switching to EVs.
Alongside this our car parks review also saw car park users and local stakeholders call for more EV chargers to be installed in our car parks.
We have now installed chargers in The Corn Exchange car park in Haverhill. It brings the total number of EV chargers we have installed in West Suffolk to 46 across 15 locations. We are also in the process of installing EV charges in the George St car park in Brandon to go live later this year and are continuing to look at other locations.
Alongside this West Suffolk Council also offers a Greener Business Grant which means it will match fund a business up to £1,000 towards the cost of an electric vehicle or company charge point.
The Plug In Suffolk scheme meanwhile is aimed at parish locations and can help fully fund charge points – see www.pluginsuffolk.org
The Government plans to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars in the UK by 2030 with new hybrid vehicles allowed until 2035. By working with the Government and other partners we hope to make that choice easier for residents and businesses now.
EVs are cheaper to run than petrol or diesel vehicles – generally 3p per mile instead of 10p a mile. Improvements in technology mean that EVs can make many long journeys on a single charge and they are becoming a more realistic option not just for residents but for businesses including trades people and small-scale suppliers. By switching to EVs people are helping reduce air pollution which cost this country at least £16 billion in health costs each year according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
Both the Haverhill and Brandon EV charges are being paid for through investment secured from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) and BP Chargemaster – and investment of approximately £60,000.
As with our other car parks, the charging stations will be available on the recently rebranded BP Pulse network. Users will need to register for a BP Pulse account to use the charging bays.
I hope you welcome this news which is of course all part of our wider work around reducing air pollution, work which includes reducing vehicle idling and encouraging greater use of clean energy particularly solar energy.
For more on this work visit www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/protecting-our-environment/index.cfm