Northumberland county council gives the green light for the installation of EV charging points

Plans to install a raft of new on-street electric vehicle (EV) chargers in Northumberland over the coming years have been given the green light.

At Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, members unanimously agreed on the proposed strategy which will see the installation of 75 on-street EV chargepoints across the county each year over the next three years.

The chargepoints will be installed at locations which will best meet the needs of both residents and visitors and the plans were welcomed by the Cabinet which gave its full support for the growing EV infrastructure in the county.

Council leader, Glen Sanderson said, “this is great news as it will help encourage our residents to make the switch to EV and become more environmentally friendly.

“Around 23,000 households in Northumberland do not have access to off-road parking and would struggle to charge an EV without this dedicated infrastructure. Having these publicly available charge points will allow EVs to become a viable and attractive option for many more of our residents - not just those with off-street parking.”

The proposal supports the council’s ambition for Northumberland to be a carbon neutral county by 2030 and over the next eight years the Council aims to have around 30 per cent of cars owned in Northumberland as EVs in order to reach this target.

Cllr Sanderson continued, “although certain policy decisions, such as the ban on the sale of new internal combustion engine cars, will encourage more EVs, many barriers still exist and we need to remove these as much as possible to help support the transition to EV, which will ultimately improve our county for the better.”