Cllr Tony Harper at Shirley Rd, Ripley-56d00834

Derbyshire council installs first new electric vehicle charging points

Amber Valley Borough Council has demonstrated its commitment to protecting the environment with the installation of its first public electric vehicle charging points.

Electric vehicle owners in Belper and Ripley are the first to benefit from the borough council’s drive to increase its residents’ access to rapid charging points.

Largely funded from external grants, the council has installed BP Pulse charging points, available for anyone to use, at Shirley Road car park, in Ripley, and Belper’s Field Lane car park.

The move is designed to provide residents and visitors with more options to help reduce carbon emissions as well as encouraging more people to switch to electric vehicles.

Each of the new charging points is installed with two dual-socket rapid charging sockets, four units are in each car park, enabling a total of eight vehicles to charge-up at any one time.

Councillor Tony Harper, holder of Amber Valley Borough Council’s regeneration portfolio, said: “The lack of charging points across the borough is currently a barrier to residents and businesses interested in buying and using plug-in electric vehicles.

“We therefore want to do all we can to help more Amber Valley residents make the switch to more environmentally friendly motoring and we deliberately selected car parks close to residential areas where parking was limited.

“The sites are also within town centres, and visitors will be able to use the charge points too. In doing so, we will reduce pollution within the towns and so improve the air quality.”

To access the charging points, people will need to register with BP Chargemaster and either download its pay-as-you-go app or apply for a special RFID (radio frequency identification) card. The rapid charging facility costs 32p per Kwh.

The total £78,425 cost of the project was jointly funded with more than £40,000 from the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and around £20,000 from BP Chargemaster, the charging point provider. Additional grant funding was gained from the Energy Saving Trust and the remainder provided from the council’s own funds.

Amber Valley Borough Council intends to bid for more new funding to help finance the installation of more electric vehicle charging points in other areas of the borough in the near future.

More information about how to use the charge points can be found on Amber Valley Borough Council’s website at www.ambervalley.gov.uk/roads-and-parking/parking/electric-vehicle-charging-points/.

BP Pulse machines form the UK’s largest vehicle charging network with over 7,000 charging points across the country. To discover more about the company and its technology, visit www.bpchargemaster.com.