Car charging points in the district used 9,000 times in a year as demand soars

More electric car charging points are to be installed around the Wakefield district to cope with soaring demand.
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Data has shown that the 10 rapid chargers already in place have been used 9,000 times in the past 12 months.

Typically, they fully charge a vehicle in under an hour and there are no parking fees while the vehicle is hooked up to the machine.

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In addition, they are currently free to use with the electricity being sourced from 100 per cent renewable sources.

Wakefield Council's Gary Blenkinsop at one of the charge points in the city.Wakefield Council's Gary Blenkinsop at one of the charge points in the city.
Wakefield Council's Gary Blenkinsop at one of the charge points in the city.

As a result, Wakefield Council has earmarked locations to install a further six points, with even more planned in the future.

Coun Jack Hemingway, cabinet member for climate change, said: “This is fantastic news, demonstrating a growing demand for the infrastructure we have developed and a positive step forward as we work to achieve our pledge to become carbon neutral by 2030.

He added:“We really hope our residents will consider switching to electric vehicles if they are able to.”

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The initiative between Wakefield Council, the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and energy company, ENGIE, is to provide a network of rapid charge points across the region.

With the addition of the new points, it will take West Yorkshire’s total to 88, which is nearly a fifth of the entire 500 charge points available across the whole of the country.

The six new charging points are planned this year at Cineworld car park, Wakefield, additional charges at Stuart Road car park in Pontefract, and points at Asda stores in Durkar, Glass Houghton, Moorthorpe and on Dewsbury Road, Wakefield.

The existing points are already installed in car parks at West Street in Normanton, High Street in Horbury and Ventnor Way in Ossett.

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In Wakefield, they are on Unity House, Turton Street, Rodney Yard and Granary car park.

There are also chargers in car parks on Welbeck Street in Castleford, Stuart Road in Pontefract and Bell Lane in Ackworth.

The Express understands that Wakefield Council will now be trying to identify other locations across the district to install a variety of on-street and car park charge points to make them more accessible.