Bucks Council announces £1.9m investment into electric vehicle charging point rollout

Bucks Council has announced an additional £1.9 million will be invested into providing new electric vehicle chargepoints throughout the county.

It will look to add chargepoints in areas where there is little off-street parking available. The authority has received extra funding for its EV project via the Government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) capital fund.

Bucks Council is also advising that residents and businesses who have private parking can access funding support from the Government via the Homecharge and Workplace Charging schemes. LEVI aims to support those who cannot install their own charge points at home.

There are currently 294 publicly-accessible EV chargepoints in Buckinghamshire, owned by various operators. The authority is planning to increase that to 1,000 publicly-accessible chargepoints in Buckinghamshire by the end of 2027.

This was previously announced by the council in its 5-year action plan that can be found online here.

Councillor Steven Broadbent said: “It’s excellent to hear that we’ve been successful in our funding bid to further support the installation of hundreds of new chargepoints across Buckinghamshire. This funding will ensure the rollout continues at pace, with those without access to off-street parking benefiting hugely.

“It will not only help us work towards reaching our target of 1,000 publicly-accessible EV charging spaces in the county by 2027, but it’s also another great example of the extent of the work we’re doing to tackle climate change here in Buckinghamshire.”

Linked to its EV targets are a charging trial in Wendover which involved deploying 10 on-street charging points in the town. Bucks Council has also funded on-street charging points in 20 Buckinghamshire Council car parks, amounting to 160 EV-only charging spaces. Also, the authority confirmed two officers have been hired this year to focus on improving its EV operations.

Bucks Council’s EV Action Plan was first published in June 2022, other parts of the scheme involving researching what needs to be done to encourage more motorists to switch to electric vehicles in the future. Bucks Council also has a webbox dedicated to answering chargepoint queries it can be contacted via email.