Issue - meetings

Councillor Warwick introduced the report, together with the Head of Environmental Health and Licensing.  The Head of Environmental Health and Licensing highlighted that the Government had published a new Air Quality Strategy since the report was produced.  The new Strategy focussed on emissions from non-vehicular sources (e.g. wood burning stoves) but still retained the ambition to reduce emissions from vehicles.  The Government had adopted a policy aim of 70% of all vehicles sold being electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030 and 100% by 2040.

Cabinet welcomed to the meeting Ernie Shelton from Horizon Power and Energy who had prepared the Electric Vehicle Charging Strategy for the Council, contained as the appendix to the report.  Mr Shelton gave a presentation outlining the contents of the Strategy.  In summary, his advice would be that the Council start on a small scale basis with careful consideration of the most appropriate place to site EV charging points.  Decisions as to how to expand could then be based on data captured and taking account of expected advances in technology.

Mr Shelton responded to detailed questions from Members and others present on his presentation.

At the invitation of the Chairman, Councillors Bell and Thompson addressed Cabinet as summarised below.

As a member of the Air Quality Steering Group, Councillor Bell welcomed the report and the proposal to run pilots with specific interested residents with on-street parking in the Air Quality Management Area (AQMA).  With regard to the possible future use of electric park and ride buses, she suggested “shuttle” electric buses could be used to ferry passengers over shorter distances, supplementing the main bus routes.

Councillor Thompson also welcomed the report and the presentation given by Mr Shelton (which had also been received at a previous Winchester Town Forum meeting).   She remained slightly concerned that the proposals were not sufficiently ambitious.  She suggested that the option of providing EV charging spaces in car parks specifically for residents without off-street parking be investigated.  She believed there might be capacity issues with the National Grid and suggested solar panels could be installed on car parks to provide additional electricity.  In addition, the Council should seek to market Winchester as an attractive place for EV users to stop and charge their vehicle.

Councillor Warwick thanked Mr Shelton for his presentation.

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons outlined above and set out in the Report.

RESOLVED:

1.         That the draft Strategy be adopted.

2.         That a detailed options appraisal for the delivery and operation of an electric vehicle charging network be completed for consideration at a future Cabinet meeting.