Agenda item

The Committee will receive an update report on the Electric Vehicle Action Plan as well as the papers presented to Cabinet at its meeting on 7 June 2022.

Contributors:

Councillor Steve Broadbent, Cabinet Member for Transport

Councillor Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member for Climate Change & Environment

Richard Lumley, Service Director for Strategic Transport & Infrastructure

Hannah Joyce, Transport Strategy Lead Officer

Rupert Zierler, Senior Strategy Transport Officer

The Chairman welcomed the Cabinet Member for Transport, Councillor S Broadbent, to the meeting and invited him to introduce the report. Before doing so, the Cabinet Member updated that, subject to contractual confirmation, the Council had received a provisional award in full for its bid to install 128 charging bays. This would be a significant boost for the county’s infrastructure. The Cabinet Member also reiterated that the Council had budged £800,000 to top-up Government funding on EV charging where necessary. The council’s second bid would be focused on assisting Town and Parish Councils access charging points in publicly accessible car parks or spaces.

The Cabinet Member highlighted that under the new highways procurement, Balfour Beatty Living Places, as Buckinghamshire Highways, would have smaller EVs and EV chargers in depots by the end of the first year. Further opportunities for fleet electrification would be considered in future.

The following points were noted during the Select Committee’s discussion:

·       The Cabinet Member welcomed the suggestion that the team speak with Coldharbour Parish regarding its Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) Project which combined street lighting with on street charging.

·       Various Members expressed concerns with the performance of BP Pulse particularly when compared to other providers. The Cabinet Member advised that the contract had been awarded based on a procurement exercise where providers had bid against the council’s criteria. The Council had an improved relationship with BP Pulse and its service level agreement covered incident severity and response times which ranged between four hours and seven days. There was an overall agreement that 95% of the network would be working at all times. One Member’s comment regarding issues with BP Pulse’s Radio Frequency Identify Card (RFID) would be investigated.

·       The wireless charging trial had been a Department for Transport (DfT) scheme in conjunction with the Council that had now ceased. The Council was awaiting the data from the Open University which would be available to TECC.

·       Pavement channels required numerous considerations which included best practice, legal restrictions, parking and maintenance schedules.

·       Plans for EV chargers at the Wycombe office car park would be investigated outside the meeting.

Action: R. Zierler

·       Members reiterated the importance of ensuring the right charger was in the right place and took dwell time into account. Policy work was underway on parking reviews to consider where improvements were needed to better reflect dwell time and EV chargers. This policy would also consider aspects of enforcement to ensure a turnover of EV users.

·       Power grid connections provided by Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) were proving challenging, with one quotation for installation being in excessive of £50,000. Consideration of sites took into account potential DNO connection costs.

·       The service was investigating contingencies for increased demand which included discussions with England’s Economic Heartland.

·       Car park viability was based on a threshold capacity of over 40 spaces as EV chargers took up around eight spaces. Beaconsfield featured in a number of potential locations due to the Council having large enough assets in the town and being densely populated. The Cabinet Member encouraged Town and Parish Councils with ownership of car parks to come forward for consideration in ORCS bid, 2 which would enable a greater spread of coverage, and advised that the service could help Town and Parish Councils with their own bids to Government. The Chairman noted that Members should relay this to their respective Community Boards.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and the officer for the update.