Council bid for car scheme cash

New electric charging points could be introduced at three sites across the High Peak. 

It's part of a project to introduce a climate-friendly car initiative. 

Derbyshire County Council say it is bidding for around £240,000 to introduce 22 electric charging points at six sites across the county, which include Edward Street in Glossop, Anchor Fold in Chapel-en-le-Frith and Victoria Park Road in Buxton. 

To charge up, motorists would need to register and would be issued with a smartcard, which is then swiped against a machine to unlock the electricity supply. Typically, it takes around three hours to fully charge a car and costs around £3.50.

Cllr Tony King, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Regeneration, said: "If our bid is successful, we hope this will encourage local residents to switch to electric vehicles, benefitting themselves through reduced motoring costs such as fuel and road tax, plus it will help to improve local air quality.

"The sites have been chosen because they are close to residential areas where there is limited on-street parking and are within or very close to the Peak District which is popular with visitors, who will also be able to use them. 

"We also considered sites in other areas but at this early stage of the project they were either too costly to set up or would have been unable to feed in to appropriate electricity supplies.

"However, we hope that as this scheme gains momentum we may be able to bid for further money to introduce electric vehicle charging points in other parts of Derbyshire."

Cllr King added: "In line with the council’s ambition to achieve zero CO2 emissions throughout the whole of Derbyshire by 2050 this proposed scheme also demonstrates our commitment to climate change and reducing our carbon footprint." 

The council say it should learn if its bid has been successful by the end of 2019, with charging points up and running by March 2020.

The scheme would be at no cost to the council. If its bid is successful, 75 per cent of the funding would be provided by the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles, matched by 25 per cent from electric vehicle charging point company BP Chargemaster.