We are installing 14 new electric vehicle (EV) charging points at seven locations across South Gloucestershire as part of our plans to upgrade the publicly available charging network in the area.
The 14 charging points will be located at Emersons Green, Hanham, Kingswood, Patchway, Staple Hill, Thornbury and Yate, offering residents and visitors to the area rapid (50kW) and fast (7-22kW) charging facilities at a wider range of locations. This is the first phase of our roll-out of EV charging points, with future plans for a number more at sites across the area.
The new charging points will be installed in public car parks at:
The Parade (Epney Close), Patchway (one fast)
Yate Shopping Centre West car park (Station Road entrance), Yate (one rapid and one fast)
Cecil Road car park, Kingswood (two fast)
St Mary Street car park, Thornbury (one fast)
Haynes Lane, Staple Hill (one fast)
Laburnum Road car park, Hanham (one fast).
We are also installing one fast and five rapid charge points a flagship West of England charging hub at the Bristol and Bath Science Park (BBSP) in Emersons Green, which will also feature a solar canopy. We ultimately aim to install a total of 12 (including both rapid and fast) EV charging bays at the hub.
We expect to begin installing the first batch of charging points from mid-July and all 14 will be operational by the end of March 2021.
Cllr Steve Reade, Cabinet Member for Planning, Transport and the Strategic Environment, said: “We are pleased to announce these 14 additional charging points for electric vehicles that will be installed across South Gloucestershire. We want to encourage greater use of electric vehicles and will be continuing to implement new schemes to upgrade and enhance the public charging network, Revive.
“It’s hoped that these improvements will give residents and businesses the confidence to invest in electric vehicles over the coming years and in turn to help lower carbon emissions. There are a range of benefits from electric vehicles, including improved air quality and economic benefits. As the up-take of electric vehicles increases, we want to ensure that we have a strategy in place that reflects our role as a local authority and we will continue to explore options for further public charging locations across South Gloucestershire.”
Funding to install EV charging points across our region has been awarded to the Go Ultra Low West (GULW) partnership by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). Working alongside the other West of England authorities collectively as Revive, approximately 120 EV charging connections will be installed in total, with 40 of these located across South Gloucestershire.
Using GULW funding, we also hope to support other areas including Staple Hill, Mangotsfield, Cribbs Causeway and Filton. Moving beyond the GULW funded sites we are also investigating additional sites in Frampton Cotterell and Marshfield and we are working to better understand future demand and what our role will be to satisfy these needs.
An influx of investment is already helping to deliver essential EV infrastructure and by working together with the private sector we hope to ensure that we continue to deliver significant improvements to the EV charging experience over the next few years.
The private sector is beginning to provide greater access to rapid charging points and we see our role as a local authority to pro-actively encourage private sector investment in order to offer a more comprehensive EV charging network across the region. We want to demonstrate true leadership in promoting green mobility solutions and have already seen tangible success in pushing for private sector commitments in key locations such as Longwell Green, Frenchay and Bradley Stoke.
For more information about GULW visit https://travelwest.info/drive/electric-vehicles/go-ultra-low-west
