Wandsworth targets EV chargers on all residential streets

Wandsworth council has outlined plans to become a ‘leading supporter of electric vehicles’ by installing car charging points on every residential street across the south London borough.

Councillors on the authority’s community services scrutiny committee will vote on the proposals at a meeting on Wednesday (15 November).

(l-r) Councillor Jonathan Cook with Source London managing director Christophe Arnaud

The meeting will also explore the use of using lamp column chargers to address a lack of off-street parking within the borough.

Should the plans be taken forward, council officials will also be asked to explore the cost and logistics involved in providing electric car charging points in every lamppost on residential streets across entire district.

According to documents published ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, take-up of electric vehicles is rapidly accelerating within the borough, with 353 electric vehicles having been registered during the second quarter of 2017 — up from just over 120 during the same period two years earlier.

Air quality

The council is seeking to provide a ‘thorough and coordinated’ approach to recharging infrastructure that will encourage uptake of EVs to “improve air quality and provide a means of sustainable travel for all.”

At present Wandsworth currently has 35 charging points in 11 locations across the borough — and there are existing plans to install another 50 in 20 further locations by the turn of the year, with work being carried out by BluePointLondon Ltd. The charging points will become a part of the Source London charging network.

The documents add that the council is seeking to establish a combination of street lamp-based charging points, in addition to faster “electric vehicles only” charging bays and rapid charging points in off-street locations and near main roads.

Future

Commenting on the measure, Wandsworth’s environment spokesman Councillor Jonathan Cook, said: “The future of motoring is electric. The Government has announced that in 20 years time petrol and diesel vehicles will no longer be sold in the UK. This means that councils need to start planning ahead now to make sure we deliver the infrastructure to keep people moving and give people as much choice as possible. Nowhere is this more relevant than here in inner London where air quality is a real concern.

“Providing as many charging points as possible is the key. We need to make the best use of existing infrastructure and make it as easy and as convenient as we can so that people are encouraged to switch to electric. But we don’t want to wait 20 years. We want to support this revolution now so that we can begin to cut harmful emissions, reduce pollution and improve the quality of the air we breathe.

“We’ve already done a lot to tackle pollution in Wandsworth but we want to do more by supporting this new globally important technology and delivering the improvements in air quality that are so badly needed.”

Councillor Cook has called for support for the measure from the Mayor of London, and has claimed that by installing significant numbers of new charging points, Wandsworth would be a providing a ‘major boost’ to the Mayor of London’s air quality strategy.