North East Derbyshire needs more EV charging points according to experts

A council has agreed to consider concerns about the number of on-street Electric Vehicle charging points in North East Derbyshire after a recent survey and media report claimed the district is among the worst public ‘charging deserts’ in Great Britain.
NE Derbyshire District Councillor, Frank-Adlington-Stringer, of the Green Party, called for the district council to speed up and expand its investigation into the feasibility of installing EV charging points at its 17 car parks and at other ‘appropriate assets’ and that it should urge the East Midlands Mayor and Derbyshire County Council to support its plans.
Cllr Adlington-Stringer told a recent council meeting: “We fail to meet our targets set by Government and we are not on track to get there.
“Fortunately, the county council has some funding to do this and the new East Midlands Mayor has set out their ambitions to set out more Electric Vehicle charging points across the country.
“So this is us taking opportunity to stand up for our district and make sure we are ahead of the queue and making sure we have that coverage.
“Here in North East Derbyshire we are a rural district with inadequate public transport cover and to be able to have the transition we need to de-carbonise in the way we need, residents are going to rely on Electric vehicles in part.”
Cllr Adlington-Stringer referred to a recent Guardian newspaper and website article that stated that a Field Dynamics analysis claims that North East Derbyshire’s charger network only covers 1.3per cent of ‘on-street’ households, with many of these in the villages surrounding Chesterfield.
Regulators, according to the article, are concerned about big areas known as ‘charging deserts’ particularly outside cities, that are not served adequately by the public network.
North East Derbyshire was narrowly ranked in the study as the worst public ‘charging desert’ in Great Britain followed by Redditch on 3.2per cent, and others not ranking well included Bolsover on 4.1per cent and Mansfield on 5.1per cent.
Cllr Adlington-Stringer claims NE Derbyshire District Council is failing to meet its Government set target of 517 EV charging points by 2030 with just 17 currently in place, and he claims only 15per cent of residents can adopt a ‘green commute’ despite a Government target of 35per percent.
He stated: “Given the rural nature of the district, the inadequate provision of bus routes between villages and failure to invest seriously in active travel infrastructure, EVs play an even more crucial role in decarbonising our area.”
Cllr Adlington-Stringer urged the council to consider what might be possible at its 17 car parks across Clay Cross, Dronfield, Eckington and Killamarsh with any avaiable support from the East Midlands Mayor and from Derbyshire County Council’s £6.6m Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funding grant.
Council Leader, Cllr Nigel Barker accused Cllr Adlington-Stringer, who is vice chairperson of the council’s Environment Scrutiny Committee, of ‘grandstanding’ for raising the matter at a full council meeting instead of at an alternative council forum.
However, Cllr Barker welcomed the opportunity to debate what he regards as an important issue and he stated that a feasibility study has been undertaken at the district council’s car parks and six have been identified as being suitable for EV charging points.
Cllr Barker said: “This council is already in the process of preparing a policy. Officers have been working with their counterparts at the county council and other districts and boroughs to agree a countywide approach.
“We have recently contributed to a feasibility study of all the 17 car parks and identified six in North East Derbyshire as being suitable for EV charging points.”
He added that funding for EV charging points does not fall under the East Midlands Combined County Authority’s Mayoral office and that Derbyshire County Council is the lead authority on the subject.
The Council Leader said: “Because we have been in partnership with the county council in developing the LEVI strategy we have already been in discussions with them about funding.”
Cllr Carolyn Renwick, who is also a county councillor, told the meeting that the county council has been awarded a £6.6m LEVI grant for EV charging points in residential areas where there is little or no ‘off-street’ parking.
She added there are three schemes in the middle of a tendering process including ‘on-street’ installations utilising street lighting, ‘on-street’residential free-standing charging points, and rapid chargers in district and borough council car parks.
Cllr Adlington-Stringer, who disputed he was ‘grandstanding’, said the district council is failing in its green objectives and he urged the authority to send a message to the county council to better source the district and to the new East Midlands Mayor to provide more support.
However, Cllr Barker argued that Cllr Adlington-Stringer’s motion was unnecessary because the council is already working with the county council on a strategy and it is already preparing a related policy after a feasibility study.
But the council leader’s alternative proposal for the matter to go to an environment scrutiny meeting for further discussion was passed by a majority vote at the council meeting on September 23.