The Government has made a commitment to support the development of Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs) and referred to it in the Queen’s Speech in June 2017 as part of the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill. In a further announcement in July 2017 aligned to the Bill, the Government announced plans to ban new diesel and petrol vehicles from sale in the UK from 2040 to greatly improve the air quality and carbon emissions nationally.
Within the Borough, areas of the town of Boston, mainly John Adams Way, are considered to have poor air quality. The primary cause of poor air quality within Boston is due to high levels of vehicle emissions within or close to the town centre.
One of the aims, notwithstanding the economic potential of introducing electric vehicle charging facilities, is to incentivise the use of electric vehicles in the Borough. Any switch from conventional diesel or petrol vehicles will have a positive impact on the air quality and wider carbon emissions across the Borough.
Electric vehicles produce fewer CO2 emissions than traditional petrol/diesel vehicles and therefore will improve air quality. However, the Borough of Boston has very small number of accessible EV charge points, which currently inhibits electric vehicle owners coming to town.
Increasing the number of accessible charging points will clearly promote Boston as a place that is actively encouraging alternative vehicle technologies to improve its air quality and the wider environmental impact. Also by making the town of Boston more accessible to electric vehicle owners there is an opportunity to make our shopping areas, parks and attractions a destination of choice.
The proposal is to establish a network of EV Charge Points across six of the Council’s own car parks.
It is proposed to provide electric vehicle only bays with the appropriate charging infrastructure pods capable of charging two vehicles simultaneously at the under mentioned locations following a recent survey undertaken by Rolec Services and is attached entitled Electric Vehicle Charging Point Proposals.
- Staniland Car Park: Two units allowing 4 vehicles to be charged simultaneously.
- Bargate Green Car Park: Two units allowing 4 vehicles to be charged simultaneously.
- Cattle Market Car Park: Two units allowing 4 vehicles to be charged simultaneously.
- West End Car Park: One unit allowing 2 vehicles to be charged simultaneously.
- Geoff Moulder Leisure Centre: One unit allowing 2 vehicles to be charged simultaneously.
- Municipal Buildings Car Park: One unit allowing 2 vehicles to be charged simultaneously and a further 5 wall charging points.
The initial survey was carried out by Rolec Services Ltd, a leading manufacturer of EV charging points and who is working closely with the Government Department Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) on manufacturing projects. Rolec Services Ltd are also supporting vehicle manufacturers in development of next generation charging, storing and discharging of electricity. Those manufacturers include: Kia, Toyota Renault, Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, Tesla and Hyundai.
Rolec Services Ltd has manufactured over 100,000 EV charging points and over 50,000 WallPod charging points and are working on commercial projects with the National Health Service, DHL Courier Services, United Parcel Services, Dynamic Parcel Distribution and the Royal Mail on vehicle conversion projects.
The proposal from Rolec is to install AutoCharge pedestals with ChargeOnline payment facility, together with a payment mechanism to allow the Council to recover any costs associated with the electricity consumed.
The AutoCharge pedestals have socket ratings of 32amps (7.2kW) and can charge a typical vehicle from flat to full in 2-4 hours.
The EV Charge Online system is web enabled, cloud based software solution designed to allow the host (Boston Borough Council) full management of their public facing EV charging network.
The Charge Online systems allows the EV owners the ability to use any EV charging point within the network (inside or outside of the Borough) on either a pay-as-you-go or a preauthorised credit account using a mobile device, phone or tablet. The Rolec AutoCharge system is unique as unlike other providers there are no additional costs assisted with running an electric vehicle like, licence fees, connection fees and subscription or membership fees.
This initiative has been developed to support key priorities as set out under the Prosperity theme within the Council’s Plan 2016/17 – 2019/20, mainly:-
- Promote and support inward investment into the Borough
- Support business development and growth for new and existing businesses, and
- Infrastructure development
This Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure project will have a major impact across the Borough in terms of better air quality, creating wider environmental impacts and an economic intervention making the town of Boston more accessible to EV owners, creating an opportunity to make our shopping areas, parks and attractions a destination of choice.
There is a financial liability to the Council to implement the project but funding in part will be sought through the Office for Low Emission Vehicles – Grants, to provide residential on street charge points for plug-in electric vehicles.
In 2016 the Department of Transport launched the ‘On-Street Residential Charge Point Scheme’, offering funding for local authorities to buy and install electric vehicle charge points and the Government urges local authorities to take advantage of a £4.5 million pot of which only five applications have been received via this scheme.
However, this funding option only supports 75% of the cost of procuring and installing charge points and therefore the remaining 25% is proposed to be supported through the Business Rates Retention Pilot Programme.
Return on investment and/or on costs have yet to be established, including parking charges or indeed loss of parking income but general maintenance and running costs should be minimal and envisage covered by users through electric extraction.
Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Point infrastructure project will enable the Borough to deliver on key priorities including the improvement of air quality in and around the town of Boston through reduced vehicle emissions.
Providing this level of EV infrastructure will enable residents, businesses and visitors to use electric vehicles every day and for those users to be confident, through strategically place EV points that they will be able to recharge vehicles quickly and conveniently.