Electric Vehicle charge points finally being installed

Responding to the news that Bedford Borough Council has announced that it is finally installing more EV (Electric Vehicle) charge points, Cllr Charles Royden, Liberal Democrat Environment spokesperson, commented, 

“The Liberal Democrat administration successfully applied for LEVI funding for additional investment in EV charging points when the scheme launched in 2023. 

It is disappointing that the Conservative-led administration has sat on this funding for over a year. In 2021, Bedford was a leading authority in the installation of charge points but recently we have fallen behind the UK average. In fact, the Council has not installed a single EV charging point in over three years which is a complete failure to provide for our residents. Hopefully the team can now crack on and provide the additional charging points which residents need.

It is essential that this process is done in close consultation with residents and councillors to ensure that the charging points are located where communities need them. The Mayor has a poor track record of consultation and I will be watching closely to ensure that the locations chosen deliver the services that our residents deserve.”

Notes:

The initial installation of 260 sockets is being installed by Connected Kerb on behalf of the Council’s Highways Engineering team, and will provide access to EV charging for residents that currently don’t have off-street parking. 

The EV charging points are funded from the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV).