Liberal Democrats on the County Council seek Clarity on the Development of Electric Vehicle Charging Points for Hertfordshire

Cllr Bibby, the Executive Member for Highways and the Environment:

“Given the expected and continued high growth of EV (electric vehicles) there is recognition that highway authorities should facilitate the infrastructure and charging platforms required for these. The Mayor of London has an EV infrastructure delivery plan. Given the above will the Executive Member now consider and bring forward to a future panel meeting a report on how the county, as the Highway Authority, can assist and enable, especially in new developments, on-road highways charging points and plan

Cllr Bibby replied:

“A strategy to help guide the County Council and the District and Boroughs is in development and has been supported by several round table officer discussions with the Districts and Boroughs to help shape the work. I will bring a report to a future Panel advising how we will support a sustainable collaborative approach to on-road EV charging.

The work is seeking to:

1. Review the trends and a range of forecast for uptake, vehicle sales, new models coming onto the market by vehicle type

2. Review of where the market is heading in the short, medium and long term – future charge point technologies (types, charging rates, layouts/formats etc), charging locations (identify if there is a push by the large providers to develop dedicated charging stations) and availability/accessibility of charge facilities for residents – Hertfordshire and adjacent area specific – national overview

3. Review how local authorities can manage risk associated with installation, operation and maintenance of on-street and off-street charging equipment. How can local authorities protect themselves against rapidly evolving EV charging technology and not be left with responsibility to remove/uninstall outdated technology.

4. Identify (based on readily available data) an approximate proportion of residents reliant on on-street parking in Hertfordshire (as granular as possible)

5. Develop local uptake forecast rates by vehicle type/locations, including existing requests

6. Recommendations on how to promote/facilitate EV uptake amongst those reliant on on-street parking

7. Review how a model based on centralised rapid charging hubs including destination charging, similar to the current ‘filling station’ model, might meet the long-term charging needs of Hertfordshire.

This will need to consider the impact of any new charging infrastructure on the capacity of electricity network.

Outcome – from this work/evidence we want to present options and a preferred scenarios to define our position for on-street charging infrastructure and form the basis to identify our role to overcome the barriers to EV adoption in the county. There is an option to take it to a Member Advisory Group in advance of Panel after the commissioned work is complete and provides an evidence base.”