Electric vehicle charging Archives

Plan to create 200 HGV parking bays at Wetherby Services

Plans have been submitted to expand Wetherby Services to create 200 new heavy goods vehicle parking spaces.

Rapleys LLP which has tabled a screening application on behalf of services operator Moto Hospitality Ltd for the site off junction 46 of the A1(M).

It would see the site expand to create 200 HGV parking spaces, while the current HGV parking facilities would be replaced with 118 electric vehicle charging bays.

In documents submitted to the council, the developer said the extension was required to meet demand at the services.

It said:

“The proposed circa 200 new HGV parking spaces form part of an urgently required extension to the existing motorway service area.

“This proposal arises from the need for increased HGV parking capacity at the existing motorway service area.”

The planned layout for the parking spaces at Wetherby Services.

It added that its plan to include 118 electric vehicle charging spaces would align with Moto’s strategy to increase infrastructure at its sites.

The document said:

“Electric vehicles will play a big part in the transition to zero emission transport, but to achieve these targets, it is imperative that suitable infrastructure is provided to support electric vehicles.

“The proposed development forms part of Moto’s wider strategy to bring EV infrastructure at their services.”

The move comes as Gridserve, a sustainable energy firm in Kirk Deighton, also applied to North Yorkshire Council to install 12 charging bays within the existing services car park.

North Yorkshire Council will make a decision on both proposals at a later date.

Plan to install electric vehicle charging bays at Harrogate M&S approved

A plan to install eight electric vehicle charging points in the car park at Marks and Spencer’s food hall at Oatlands in Harrogate has been approved.

BP Pulse, which is BP’s electric vehicle charging business, applied to North Yorkshire Council for the scheme in August this year.

The company has an agreement to install high-speed electric vehicle charge points at about 70 M&S stores.

Officers at North Yorkshire Council have now approved the proposal for the Harrogate Oatlands site.

A planning statement by Manchester planning consultants Rapleys LLP on behalf of BP Pulse said the charging points would be located to the north of the store, next to Hookstone Road.

The statement says six of the spaces have their own dedicated charger, and two spaces would share a hyper charger, which is an ultra-fast DC to DC charger that can fully charge batteries in a a few minutes.

One of the spaces would be a disabled bay.

The developer added in its statement:

“Whilst the proposal would be visible within the existing car park, the proposal is minimal in nature and comprises a small element of electrical equipment only.

“Further, the use and appearance of the EV charging pillars and the associated electrical cabinet is consistent with the sites existing use as a car park.”

Contractor sought for £3m electric vehicle charging rollout in North Yorkshire

North Yorkshire Council is set to appoint a contractor to oversee a £3 million rollout of electric vehicle charging points.

The authority intends to embark on a strategy to install hundreds of charging points across the county.

Cllr Keane Duncan, executive councillor for highways, signed off on a decision to appoint a contractor before December 2023.

In a report due before Cllr Duncan, the council said:

“Procurement needs to launch as soon as possible to enable delivery of electric vehicle charging points by the grant funding deadline.

“A delivery plan has been established and a supplier for both the electric vehicle charging points and the renewable technology must be in place no later than December 2023 to enable us to meet the programme end date.”

The move comes as the council has predicted that 724 electric vehicle charging points will be needed across the county by 2025.

Meanwhile, 3,161 charging stations are estimated to be required by 2030.

Park View car park in Harrogate

The authority has also submitted a bid for a further £4.88 million from the governments Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure capital fund, which would help install a further 1,000 charging points.

According to the council, there are currently almost 4,000 electric vehicles registered in North Yorkshire and 225 publicly available charge points.

Cllr Greg White, executive councillor for climate change at the authority, said previously that the infrastructure is required to meet the council’s environment targets.

He said:

“The roll-out of comprehensive electric vehicle charging infrastructure is key to achieving the county’s carbon zero target.”

North Yorkshire electric vehicle charging network ‘not fit for purpose’

The leader of the opposition on North Yorkshire Council has wished the authority “good luck” in establishing a comprehensive network of electric vehicle charging points after hearing the local electricity grid was “not fit for purpose”.

A meeting of the council’s executive was told the authority was so concerned about it impeding the establishment of the required 3,000 publicly available EV charging points by 2030 that the council was investigating using solar and hydro-electric solutions to provide power in some places.

Setting out a strategy to rapidly expand EV charging points, Cllr Keane Duncan, the authority’s executive member for highways and transportation, said the council was determined rural areas should not “fall behind”.

However, he said the rural nature of North Yorkshire and electricity grid constraints meant the county faced a relatively greater challenge in preparing for the switch to electric vehicles than elsewhere.

Cllr Keane Duncan

In addition, the relatively high proportion of properties in the county with no off-street parking – some 21% – would mean a greater demand for publicly available EV charging points than elsewhere.

The meeting heard while the council was developing on-street charging proposals it was focused on creating the publicly available EV charging points at “hub locations” where it would be convenient for residents and visitors to use them, rather than “tucked away in the corner of a car park”.

Executive members were told with £3.4m of funding already secured to expand EV charging points, the council had obtained more money than any other local authority in the country for the programme.

The council is also optimistic about landing a further £5.1m of capital and £500,000 of revenue funding to deliver on its EV charging network aspirations, but the meeting was told the lack of power grid capacity would be a key factor in the council’s ability to create an EV charging network.

Paul Haslam, a Conservative who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, warned the meeting the lack of availability on the power grid could “make a mess of our strategy if we’re not careful”.

The council’s climate change boss Cllr Greg White added:

“It’s great that we are going to have all these charging points, but are we going to have an electrical supply to these charging points to make them work because the local electricity distribution network at the moment doesn’t seem like it’s going to be fit for purpose.”

Wishing the council “good luck” in overcoming the challenges, Cllr Bryn Griffiths, the Liberal Democrat group leader, said the authority had reached “a drop in the ocean of where we need to be” in securing EV charging infrastructure, before receiving reassurances that the authority would consider changing planning policies to increase charging opportunities.

electric vehicle chargepoints (1)

The authority’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, told the meeting how he and leaders of North Yorkshire businesses had held talks with Northern Powergrid officials and the National Infrastructure Commission last week to tell them the lack of grid connectivity was damaging businesses.

He said the council had been regularly lobbying the electricity infrastructure firm to develop capacity on the grid.

Mr Flinton added:

“We are startlingly aware that when we move into post-2030 the requirement that cars are going to be non-fossil fuel that there could be an impact on North Yorkshire, and even the transition period before we move entirely to electric fuel vehicles could be problematic for North Yorkshire if we don’t get this right.

“We are in the hands of others, but we are working very hard to make those other parties understand that we in North Yorkshire are very concerned about this and require their engagement on our issues.”

Northern Powergrid is yet to respond to requests for comment.

Rudding Park installs 12 new electric vehicle charging points

Rudding Park in Harrogate has commissioned 12 new electric vehicle charging points as part of a £50,000 investment.

The charging points will be available to the public and will be powered from the Rudding Park Energy Centre.

The hotel and spa teamed up with Yorkshire-based Utley-EV in order to design and install the facilities.

Managers at the hotel and spa said they intend to increase the number of charging points at the site in order to accommodate drivers of electric vehicles.

Matthew Mackaness, Rudding Park director said:

“As a responsible business it is vital we do our bit and ensure the environment is at the heart of all business decisions.

“The way to give people confidence to switch to electric is to increase the provision of chargers across the district.

“We are therefore delighted to welcome Harrogate residents and visitors to use our EV chargers.”

Mr Mackaness added that the charging points can be activated on a “tap and go” basis, rather than drivers requiring a mobile app to use the facilities.

Meanwhile, Adam Utley, director Utley-EV said:

“As an independent local business like Rudding Park, we are pleased to support them with their EV charge point design and installation roll out and look forward to working with them in the future.”

Bilton electric charging points halted due to cost and vandalism concerns

Councillors have scrapped plans to install electrical vehicle charging points in Bilton due to concerns about vandalism and cost.

In October last year, Harrogate Borough Council approved its own planning application to demolish 10 garages at Woodfield Close to make way for two homes providing temporary accommodation for homeless people.

The scheme included five off-street public parking spaces with EV charging infrastructure.

But the council’s planning committee yesterday voted to amend its application by removing electric charging points from the plan and replacing them with solar panels on the roofs of the new houses.

Officials at the authority raised concern that the infrastructure would have a “lack of anticipated use” and, as a result, would be at a “higher chance of vandalism”.

Tom O’Donovan, economy and transport officer at the council, said in planning documents to councillors:

“All of our information shows that the area is the least likely to buy an EV any time soon and even if they did there are houses with off-street parking so they wouldn’t use the charging points; though there are some without.

“It would be very unlikely for a visitor to Harrogate to go seeking them out as we’re currently installing charging points in all of our car parks.

“My concern is that they won’t be used and there is a higher chance of vandalism potentially increasing costs for a facility we never actually planned to provide.”

Mr O’Donovan said the points would cost £3,080 over five years to run and maintain and the installation costs “will depend on the costs from Northern Powergrid”.

Arthama Lakhanpall, planning officer at the council, said the justification given by the council officer demonstrated that the infrastructure would be “more of a liability than an asset to the council” and solar panels would be “more suitable in terms of delivery and energy monitoring”.

Questions over green credentials

However, some councillors on the planning committee yesterday questioned the move.

Cllr Victoria Oldham, a Conservative who represents Washburn, asked whether it would make sense to keep the charging points for staff helping homeless people at the accommodation.

She said:

“If there are likely to be any staff in the vicinity assisting the rough sleepers there, surely they ought to have the potential of having electric charging points for their vehicles?”

Cllr Robert Windass, a Conservative who represents Boroughbridge, said electric vehicle charging points had been fitted in Back Lane car park in Boroughbridge and had never been vandalised.

He said:

“It’s right at the side of the toilet block. The toilet block gets vandalised on a fairly regular basis.

“The electric vehicle charging points have never been touched. So, they are just assuming that there will be vandalism.”

Pat Marsh, a Liberal Democrat who represents Harrogate Hookstone, said removing the charging points raised questions about the council’s commitment to tackling the climate crisis.

Councillors approved the application by nine votes to two, with one abstention.

Harrogate district to get 20 new electric vehicle chargepoints

North Yorkshire is set to receive 140 new chargepoints for electric vehicles under a scheme announced today by the Department for Transport.

The county’s seven districts, including Harrogate, will each get 20 chargers.

The chargepoints will installed at on-street locations and at larger petrol-station charging hubs.

It is hoped the move will give drivers without home chargers more confidence to switch to electric, and reduce ‘range anxiety’ among existing electric vehicle users by helping to ensure motorists are never far from a chargepoint.

North Yorkshire County Council was awarded the funding today.

The council previously suggested that Markington, Pateley Bridge and Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough could receive new chargepoints in the Harrogate district. But it has yet to confirm the locations after today’s news.

Councillor Greg White, the council’s executive member for climate change, welcomed the funding. He said:

“The switch to electric vehicles is necessary as North Yorkshire moves towards becoming carbon zero, but the rural nature of the county presents some significant challenges.

“We worked hard to come up with an innovate scheme which will begin to provide the answers motorists need if they are to have the confidence to go electric.”

The chargers are part of the new Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme where the council and industry work in partnership.

Companies are putting £200,000 towards the scheme.

The council will install more electric chargers (photo: Andrew Roberts/Unsplash)

Harrogate currently has six public charging points – though the type and number of charging points varies between each station.

Knaresborough currently has two charging points whilst Ripon has four.

National plans

North Yorkshire is one of the first nine areas to receive funding.

A total of £20 million has been allocated for the pilot scheme nationally.

The government plans to eventually invest £450 million into the scheme nationwide.

It intends to grow the network of charging points around the country with more than 1,000 new charging stations set to be installed.

Decarbonisation minister Trudy Harrison said:

“We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV chargepoints, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.”

Knaresborough, Pateley and Markington could get new electric vehicle charging points

North Yorkshire County Council is to bid for £2 million worth of funding to install electric vehicle charging points in rural areas.

The proposal comes as the government has launched a £10 million pilot fund to rollout the infrastructure across the country.

The county council’s bid would see 70 charging points installed across the seven districts. It has suggested three areas in the Harrogate district, including Markington, Pateley Bridge and Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough.

A submission to government to bid for the funding was backed by Cllr Keane Duncan, executive member for highways, this morning.

Cllr Duncan said:

“We have embraced this opportunity to bring forward the strongest possible proposal within the tight 12-week deadline to benefit rural parts of our county.

“This is a competitive process across the whole of England for a relatively small pilot funding pot, so success is not guaranteed, but this bid is another clear signal of our ambition to improve transport options for people across our large, rural county.”

The charging points would be powered by renewable energy, including small-scale hydroelectric generators and solar panels linked to battery storage.

Council officials said the move would help to tackle poor connectivity and opportunities in rural areas of the county.

The bid for funding is supported by district and borough councils and the county council plans to work with NYnet, the council-owned broadband company, and Northern Powergrid on the scheme.

Harrogate Borough Council recently commissioned London company, ConnectedKerb, to install 34 charging points across the district as part of a £280,000 contract.

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Read more:

Questions over green credentials

National plans

Read more: