Issue - meetings

Purpose of report

To provide an end of trial review on the first phase of the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) and recommendations for next steps.     

RECOMMENDED that the Cabinet Member for Traffic and Transportation:

2.1.        Approves the extension of the current contract with ubitricity for a period of up to three years) from expiry of the existing contract on 5 March 2022, with authority delegated to the Director of Regeneration to finalise the details of any changes to current terms working closely with finance, procurement and legal;

2.2.        Approves that the chargepoint infrastructure, which has been identified with current low usage, should be the subject of marketing and promotional activity with a review in six months to determine their future.

Felicity Tidbury, Transport Planning Manager introduced the report.

In response to questions from Councillors, Hayley Chivers, Strategic Transport Lead clarified the following points:

·       With regard to electric charging points in private car parks, officers will take forward to ensure that they are putting electric charging points in

·       The current ubitricity chargepoints are OPCC compliant which means it is open charge protocol and any other supplier can take them on.  Currently suppliers are potentially making income from the installation rather than the usage so it is not necessarily as attractive but this is something in the future that could be investigated. The physical chargepoint could remain and the software for the back office could be taken over by another supplier.

·       The Planning department are looking at the parking Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) and electric vehicle charging infrastructure will be put into the updated version and traffic and transportation officers are working closely with planning on this.

·       The electric vehicle parking bays are enforceable; if a non-electric vehicle is parked in there or if an electric vehicle is parked but not plugged in the owners can be issued a PCN.

·       If there was a chargepoint that was not used officers would promote them in the local areas.  If there was still no takeup the marked charging bay could be removed and the chargepoint remain or the other option would be to relocate this space elsewhere if there was not the demand.

Opposition spokespeople were fully in support of the recommendations and it was felt that more marketing was needed. Members also felt it was worth thinking about the number of these spaces for the future. It was also felt that consistency was key in terms of the maintenance of the charging points.

DECISIONS: the Cabinet Member

1.    Approved the extension of the current contract with ubitricity for a period of up to three years from expiry of the existing contract on 5 March 2022, with authority delegated to the Director of Regeneration to finalise the details of any changes to current terms working closely with finance, procurement and legal;

2.    Approved that the chargepoint infrastructure, which has been identified with current low usage, should be the subject of marketing and promotional activity with a review in six months to determine their future