Only one in six councils in England have installed on-street EV charge points, an investigation has revealed.
Research by the AA also found a ‘worrying’ lack of cooperation between some district and county councils, who both believe it is the other one's responsibility to install on-street charging.
The AA has accused some councils of using a ‘loophole’ in the On-Street Residential Charging Scheme (ORCS) grant by using the funding to install charge infrastructure in town centre car parks rather than in residential areas.
Edmund King, AA president, said: ‘While many councils already have charge points, most of these are either in town centre car parks, or park & ride locations. While this is fine and must continue to grow, but we still need to provide confidence to drivers without dedicated off-street parking that they can charge at home.
‘The ORCS grant is specifically designed to help local authorities overcome the challenge of on-street residential parking and charging, however, too many councils see this as a way of bolstering their town centre charging infrastructure. This goes against the spirit of the grant.’
However, the research did find at least 32 councils will install their first on-street changes before the end of 2021.
