Electric cars: hardly any charging points in Scarborough

Now, both North Yorkshire County Council and Scarborough Borough Council are set to put increasing that tally high on their respective agendas.

Yorkshire, and in particular North Yorkshire, lags far behind the rest of the country when it comes to providing charging points for Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEVs).

ULEVs are vehicles with pure electric engines, plug-in hybrid engines or cars with CO2 emissions below 75g/km at the tailpipe.

The Government has recently pledged to end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars by 2040.

A new report, prepared for North Yorkshire County Council’s Transport, Economy and nvironment Overview and Scrutiny Committee, found that electric car owners in North Yorkshire were at a disadvantage.

The report noted: “Compared to the rest of England the distribution of charge points in Yorkshire and the Humber is fairly sparse and lower than other regions.

“In North Yorkshire, there are approximately 34 electric car charging sites. Many of these locations are not open to the general public as they are located at car dealerships, hotels or holiday cottages where they would be expected to be solely for the use of customers.

“Twelve of the 34 electric charging sites are Tesla chargers which are exclusively for Tesla car owners.”

Scarborough has just five electric car charging points, behind Harrogate with 12 and Ryedale with 7.

Yorkshire and the Humber has just 1.5 charging points per 10,000 of the population, below the countrywide average of 2.4 per 10,000 people.

Scarborough Borough Council has listed providing electric vehicle charging infrastructure as one of its priorities for its Town Centre Strategy for Scarborough.

Though the number of electric vehicles on the county’s roads is relatively low, the figure has increased rapidly.

In 2012 there were just 209 electric cars in North Yorkshire, in 2017 that had risen to just below 3,000. In Scarborough, there are approximately 300 electric cars registered.

On Thursday North Yorkshire county councillors on the transport committee will be asked to continue the push to improve the situation.

The committee report adds: “Officers will continue the review of our electric vehicle charging policy and approach to the provision of charging facilities and also monitor the changes in electric vehicle and associated charging infrastructure technologies in the coming years.

“We will continue to engage with the Office for Low Emission Vehicles to explore the options for new charging infrastructure in North Yorkshire.”