Electric vehicle charging points for Palmer Park...

At a recent council meeting Jamie asked for an update on the electric vehicle charging points promised for Palmer Park. With Reading's pollution problems infrastructure to support electric vehicles would really help. Unfortunately the money was lost when the partner pulled out. The council has put another bid in, but only for the town centre.

Full question and answer below:

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT SUB-COMMITTEE 3 NOVEMBER 2015

QUESTION NO. 2

Councillor Whitham to ask the Chair:

Electric Vehicle Charging Points

Some time ago, the Council announced electric vehicle charging points would be installed at various sites across Reading including one in Palmer Park. Please could I have an update on this ?

REPLY by Councillor Page:

I thank Cllr Whitham for his question.

Proposals to install electric vehicle charging points at Palmer Park, Rivermead Leisure Complex and Green Park were developed in response to a grant funding opportunity from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).

The grant funding provided by central Government included a requirement for 25% match funding to enable delivery of the chargepoints, which had been secured by the Council from a supplier of the chargepoints through a competitive procurement process.

Unfortunately the contractor appointed to deliver the chargepoints subsequently withdrew their offer at the last minute, thereby meaning we were unable to meet the timescales for the OLEV funding.

As a result we are looking to secure alternative funding to deliver electric vehicle chargepoints in Reading. To this end, we have recently submitted a bid to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) for the provision of four chargepoints in the basement car park of the Civic Offices and we will continue to seek further funding as opportunities arise.