Agenda and minutes

Councillor B J Thompson.

None.

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 15 February 2022 be confirmed and signed by the chair.

To receive the presentation of Dean Sargeant (Director: Neighbourhood & Enforcement Services).

The Committee invited the Service Delivery Manager: Strategic Transport & Highway Network, Neighbourhood & Enforcement Services and Strategic Transport Team Leader to update the committee on the council’s Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy.

The Service Delivery Manager: Strategic Transport & Highway Network, Neighbourhood & Enforcement Services provided a background to the council’s EV strategy. It was explained that the first EV strategy was adopted in 2018 when the benefits of EVs were recognised and the requirement for charging infrastructure was outlined. Members heard that in June 2019, the UK Government had announced ambitions to achieve net zero by 2050. Following that in November 2020, the target was set to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. It was said that, in July 2019, the council declared a climate emergency and are committed to ensuring that the authority is carbon neutral by 2030.

The Strategic Transport Team Leader provided an update to the committee regarding the current situation of EVs in the Borough. It was explained that, since 2018, the number of locations of public EV chargepoints have almost doubled from 11 to 21, and a further three more were planned. It was explained that this would provide 42 public charging devices in the Borough. Members heard that there was a number of different types of charging points that were available to people in the Borough. This ranged from slow charging points to residential charging points. It was noted that the Zap-map website was the recommended source for people to find out about the local charging points. It was also reported that 599 residents have installed an EV chargepoint through the EV Homecharge scheme (EVHS). An additional 51 sockets had been installed through the Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) at the time of the meeting. Members were informed that grant funding for zero emission vehicles would be changing this year and that some of the changes could include funding for landlords, flats and apartment development to have EV chargingpoints.

Members heard that the number of ultra-low emission vehicles that were registered in the Borough at the end of 2017 was 164 and by the third quarter in 2021 the figure was recorded as 1,310. This reflected an increase of 699% in comparison to the figure quoted in 2017. It was said that this is still less than 1% of all registered vehicles in the Borough.

Following the update of the number of EV's the members were shown information regarding the numbers of licensed plug-in cars, vans and quadricycles that were registered in Telford & Wrekin. The data was from the Department For Transport vehicle licensing statistics to date. It was explained to Members that since 2018 there has been a sharp increase in EV's to date. One of the reasons that was used to explain this trend was linked to government funding. It was said, however, that in comparison to petrol and diesel cars, EV's are still expensive to purchase.

The Service Delivery Manager: Strategic Transport & Highway Network, Neighbourhood & Enforcement Services then discussed the  ...  view the full minutes text for item COMSC44

The Director: Policy & Governance provided Members with a summary of what the Committee has scrutinised over the last municipal year. Members also heard about the outstanding items that are on the work programme and that they could be carried over to the next municipal year considering that this meeting was the last of the 2021/22 municipal year.

It was noted that the Work Programming process for the next municipal year was already underway and that they will be updated accordingly following Scrutiny Management Board.

The Chair thanked members and officers for attending the meeting.