Lancashire to build 150 new charging points
A project to install 150 on-street charging points in Lancashire, in partnership between BP Chargemaster and Lancashire County Council, is nearing completion and reached a milestone this week with the opening of a new charging ‘super hub’.
Said super hub also for drivers using the M6, is formed by 18 chargers located in a Park and Ride site near J34, near Lancaster. Work is nearing completion to ensure EV-exlusive parking bays can be enforced at a further 32 locations across the county which form part of the scheme. A council cabinet decision last week provisioned for parking restrictions to reserve the spots for use by electric vehicles, as well.
County Councillor Keith Iddon, Lancashire County Council cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “The government has provided funding to establish 150 charging points in the county to increase take-up of electric vehicles, reduce emissions and improve air quality, and I’m glad that these points are now available for people to use.”
The charging stations themselves are a mix of 50 kW chargers as well as 7 kW chargers which the partners claim can charge a vehicle in 1 or 3 hours, respectively. While HPC stations would speed up the process with larger batteries as well, this is a great start and will help ensure that British EV drivers can reach their destination without having to worry about detouring to a charging park en route.
For the project funding worth a total of £14.8 million was used from the Department for Transport’s Highway Maintenance Challenge Fund. This funding pot will go to a variety of transport renewal projects, including the rollout of LED streetlights to help cut energy use.
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