Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 25 March 2021
HINCKLEY RESIDENTS will be able to use one of the two newly-installed electric vehicle charging points in town starting next week.
Back in late January, Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council first announced that they working in partnership with Pod Point to have Electric Vehicle Charging Points (EVCPs) installed in two of the town’s Council-run car parks ready for public use by Spring.
Since then, contractors for the Borough Council have now completed the installation of 24 electric charging points in two public car parks, with grant funding money that was provided by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV).
The two new charging points are located in the Castle car park on Hill Street at the back of the Jaspers of Hinckley department store and at the Lower Bond Street car park next to the Hinckley District Museum.
The charging points will be available for public use starting next week in the Castle car park and then in the Lower Bond Street car park from mid-April.
The two car parks form a part of the nationwide ‘pod point’ network, where users simply download the ‘Pod Point’ mobile application and follow the instructions on their device to make a payment, costing just 20p per kwh to charge vehicles.
£98,000 was the grand total for the installation cost, with £70,000 of the funding secured from the OLEV scheme as a part of the Government’s commitment to ‘increase the charging infrastructure’ for electric vehicles, ready for the end of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
The remaining cost of the project was met by contributions made by developers.
Hinckley met the funding requirement due to the amount of large areas in the town which do not have off-street parking.
This was a key requirement to OLEV, as well as a need for charging points for workers, shoppers, and visitors to use when using the town centre.
As a part of the Government’s funding, residents in the town centre who live within a short walking distance of the two car parks will be eligible for permits to enable them to park at the points for free.
The offer aims to make it easier for residents who may not have off-street parking available at home to charge a vehicle nearby, in a bid to make electric vehicles more appealing in the future.
The Borough Council have undertaken surveys to deem suitability of their future rural car parks in the borough and will now be applying for funding to install further charging points in both rural and town car parks in the future.
Cllr. Stuart Bray, Council Leader for Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, said: “We are very pleased that we have been able to install electric vehicle charging points in Hinckley. This is just the first step on the council’s path towards delivering our new ‘greener’ agenda.
“In time, we hope this will encourage people to use electric vehicles as a more sustainable way to travel as part of a commitment to doing what we can to reduce greenhouse gases and climate change.
“Demand will only increase for these charge points and we are looking to introduce more on council car parks across the borough where we know residents will find it difficult to charge at home, and when more funding becomes available.”