Council Welcomes Chancellor’s Cash Pledge
After Budget announcement of £500m to be invested in boosting take up of electric vehicles
In his Budget speech Philip Hammond pledged £400m to fund the spread of vehicle charging points and a further £100m to help persuade drivers to make the switch from petrol and diesel.
The Chancellor’s announcement comes just days after Wandsworth Council unveiled its own ambitious plans to support the growth of electric motoring, with news that it is investigating the possibility of installing charging plugs in all the borough’s residential area lamposts.
Cllr Cook said: “This is a potential game changer from the Chancellor and it chimes very closely with our own efforts to support this non-polluting form of transport. Last week we decided to look at all available options for a major expansion of charging points across Wandsworth. This includes evaluating the cost and logistics involved in placing e-vehicle charging plugs in every lampost located next to a parking space in all the borough’s residential streets.
“We had already begun the process of exploring this as an option so the Government’s decision to invest £500m in promoting and supporting e-motoring is very welcome news. We will certainly want to work closely with ministers and with the industry to play a prominent role in the spread of this new and exciting environmentally-friendly technology.”
Wandsworth already has 35 charging points in 11 locations across the borough – with another 50 due to be installed at 20 new sites by the end of this year.
This is already helping to make owning and running an electric car a more attractive and viable option for many local residents.
But with growing concerns over air quality coupled with the recent Government announcement that new petrol and diesel vehicles will no longer be offered for sale from 2040 onwards and banned from the roads entirely by 2050, Cllr Cook says now is the time for further sustained action.
He added: “We’ve already done a lot to tackle pollution in Wandsworth but we need to do more, and this ambitious initiative has the potential to achieve a real improvement in local air quality."
November 24, 2017