This report seeks approval for an Electric Vehicle (EV) Strategy developed by West Sussex County Council. The Government has made it clear that a transition to EV’s forms part of its approach to achieving net zero carbon by 2050. Sales of petrol and diesel engine cars have been banned from 2040 and there is a government consultation on bringing that date forward to 2035 or 2032. One of the barriers to this transition is the availability of charge points. The proposed Strategy suggests that the Council support the take up of EVs by installing charge points on suitable Council owned car parks.

The County Council wants to work in collaboration with District and Borough Councils, as well as Parish Councils to deliver a county wide network of charge points. To reduce the complexity of accessing the charge points the network would run by one supplier. The charge points would be powered by renewable energy. The collaboration with the County Council would be via an Inter Authority Agreement. This would commit Arun District Council to add its suitable car parks to a county wide portfolio of sites within a procurement process to select a supplier to install electric vehicle charge points on its land.

The Cabinet

          RESOLVED – That

(1)  The Electric Vehicle Strategy for 2019-2030 be approved;

(2)  The Council agrees to participate in the partnership approach to installing electric vehicle charge points on Arun District Council owned land; and

(3)  Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Technical Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Members for Technical Services and Neighbourhood Services, to enter into the Inter Authority Agreement and contract with a supplier following satisfactory completion of a West Sussex County Council led procurement process and to agree other matters in concluding the process of installing electric vehicle charge points on Arun District Council owned land.

            The Cabinet Member for Technical Services introduced this report by advising that the Adoption of Electric Vehicles and a Strategy for Charging Points was an element of the many changes that would be needed to meet the UK’s commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050.  The government had banned the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and was consulting on bringing that date forward to 2035 or 2032 – that would require a switch to electric vehicles (EV).  A move to EV would also improve local air quality, which was already above the legal limits in Arun and the Council should play its part in facilitating that switch, in particular in providing the charging infrastructure which was required.

The Group Head of Technical Services advised Cabinet that, over the last year investigations had been undertaken as to whether Arun should be involved in providing EV charge points, and the options available for doing so.   Feasibility work on installing EV charge points on the Council’s car parks had been commissioned and the Council had been keeping in contact with the County Council whilst they had been developing an EV Strategy.

Public consultation undertaken as part of the development of that strategy identified “range anxiety” and the lack of EV charging infrastructure as the main barriers to residents switching.  This led to the strategy prioritising the installation of charging facilities for those residents without private driveways. though there would also be some “destination charging” included such as town centres and tourist beaches.

In recognition of the Councils’ financial positions, a key principle of the strategy was that the installation of EV charge points would be at zero cost to the participating Councils.  The proposed way of doing this would be for participating Councils to jointly procure a concession contract which would commit a supplier to install EV charge points across a portfolio of sites to form a countywide network.  This portfolio approach should avoid “cherry picking” of the most commercially attractive sites, ensuring more & better located charge points would be provided.

The Group Head of Technical Services highlighted that, under paragraphs 2.0 and 6.1 of the report there was reference to profit share: this had changed since the report had been written, as the project team at WSCC had identified that it would be administratively more efficient to share a proportion of the revenue, rather than the more readily challengeable profit element.  It was therefore proposed that a share of the revenue arising from charges levied for electricity use would be provided to the Councils and split on the basis of the number of plugs on each Council’s land.

If Members decided to take part, the Council would need to enter into an Inter Authority Agreement and provide a list of sites before the procurement process commenced on 1 July 2020, with contracts expected to be signed in November. The first year would focus on developing a network and delivery plan, with the supplier committing to install a minimum number of charge points; therefore the first EV charge points should be installed by November 2021.

            In opening up the debate, the Chairman advised that this was a part of the vital strategy in achieving a reduction in pollution.  He sought clarification as to whether there was going to be a standardisation of rapid charging points  across the network so that vehicles could be charged as rapidly as possible and secondly, he understood that there were 2 or 3 different plug in systems and he wished to see a common standard being set nationally to avoid the use of adaptors, etc when using the charging points.

            The Group Head of Technical Services advised that there would be two speeds of charging point – fast and rapid.  Fast would be the cheaper installation and would be suitable for overnight charging for residential areas whereas the more expensive rapid charging facilities would be more suited for destination charging, such as town centres.  He went on to confirm that at the moment there were three different types of plugs used by different manufacturers but it was Type 2 that had the support of the Government and its funding streams and was therefore the most prevalent one on the market.

            In considering the matter, comment was made that this initiative would support the Climate Change Emergency that the Council had declared and would appear to be a good starting point with minimal risk to the Council.  It was felt that if the nation was to achieve the Government’s target of banning diesel and petrol cars by 2040 then Councils should be part of collaborations like this across the country.  It was an ideal way for Local Government to lead the way in making the transition from fossil fuelled cars to electric vehicles.

            The Cabinet Member for Technical Services stated that the proposal did dovetail with the Council’s strategies and there were environmental benefits as well.   There were going to be economic challenges ahead, as previously discussed, and to have this infrastructure in place at zero cost to the Council would be of benefit to the District and the collaborative approach would provide consistency of charging across the County.

            In closing the debate, the Chairman acknowledged that the Electric Vehicle Strategy was going in the right direction but he asked whether the Group Head of Technical Services was aware of any discussions at regional or county level with regard to the use of hydrogen power for public transport and private vehicles, etc which would move forward rapidly the achievement of a 0% carbon economy.  An officer response was given that hydrogen had been considered in the early stages of the project but that the technology lagged behind electric vehicles by about 10 years and the car industry was moving in the direction of electric vehicles.

The Chairman then turned to questions from other Members who had submitted these prior to the meeting.  A full schedule of questions, answers and supplementary questions and answers would be attached to the signed copy of the Minutes and would also be uploaded to the website as a separate document following the meeting.                     

The Cabinet

RESOLVED - That

(1)  The Electric Vehicle Strategy for 2019-2030 be approved;

(2)  The Council agrees to participate in the partnership approach to installing electric vehicle charge points on Arun District Council owned land; and

(3)   Delegated authority be given to the Group Head of Technical Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Members for Technical Services and Neighbourhood Services, to enter into the Inter Authority Agreement and contract with a supplier following satisfactory completion of a West Sussex County Council led procurement process and to agree other matters in concluding the process of installing electric vehicle charge points on Arun District Council owned land.

            The Cabinet confirmed its decision as per Decision Notice C/051/290420, a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the Minutes.