Getting ready to lead the charge
Royal Borough: Plans in place for rise in electric cars
Plans to ensure the Royal Borough has the necessary infrastructure to support a planned influx in electric vehicles will be debated by councillors next week.
The council projects that half of all cars and vans in the borough will be electric by 2035 – rising to virtually all vehicles by 2040 – as a result of growing demand and incoming national bans on the sale of petrol and diesel models.
The borough said that there is a need for it to support the delivery of chargepoints on land it manages, such as on streets and in car parks, as it prepares for a green transport future.
A 10-year electric vehicle chargepoint infrastructure plan is being drafted by the local authority to set out actions the council will need to take to enable the transition to electric vehicles.
Cabinet members are set to discuss and approve the draft version of this plan before releasing it out for public consultation. It is set
to be finalised ready for delivery from the 2023/24 financial year.
The plan identifies that by 2033, the borough will need about 600 new on-street chargepoints, and a further 125 in council car parks – about 75 per year.
“Faced with the climate emergency, transitioning to electric vehicles is essential to efforts to decarbonise transport, which is the largest source of the borough’s carbon emissions,” Royal Borough planning officers wrote.
“The introduction of chargepoints as a prominent new feature of our roads and car parks also serves to accelerate the transition by demonstrating that driving electric is set to become a normal part of everyday life.”
The council added that
‘the majority’ of electric vehicle charging will take place overnight on private residential driveways and in depots.
Electric vehicle charging points have been installed at six on-street parking bays across Windsor and Maidenhead earlier this year as part of a pilot scheme.
Also set to be discussed at next week’s meeting will be plans to reduce the council’s carbon emissions by half by the 2025/26 financial year.
As part of its climate targets, the Royal Borough has pledged to get emissions to net zero by the year 2050.
A paper set to go before councillors will outline out how the borough will achieve its target through a mix of operational changes, buildings improvements and grid decarbonisation.
Cabinet will take place at 7pm in York House,
Windsor, on Thursday, October 27 and residents can watch the meeting live on the council’s YouTube channel.