Decision details

·  To delegate approval to the Director of Sustainable Communities, in consultation with the S151 Officer, to accept £182,250 of the Green Recovery Fund grant from the West of England Combined Authority.  These funds will be spent in line with a change request to an approved full business case for an electric vehicle project.

·  To delegate approval to implement the proposals set out within the report to the Director of Sustainable Communities, in consultation with the Cabinet member for Climate and Sustainable Travel, and the S151 Officer in accordance with the requirements of the Grant Funding Agreement.

·  To agree that the council conducts a trial of EV cable channel products, which is currently proposed to the following details:

o  Up to three different cable channel models trialled in-situ on public footways.

o  Up to twenty units/model trialled, making a maximum of sixty participants in the trial.

o  Trial units in-situ for up to twelve months, to be subject to full annual weather cycle.

o  Trial project is expected to take 18 months in total, to start when funding is released, expected April 2023 at the earliest.

o  Trial monitoring and participant surveys to inform decisions on the nature of a cable channel offer and council approval of offering to residents.

o  Participants may be required to open chargers to the public via 3^rd party community charging services where feasible, to increase trial impact to public EV users.

·  To facilitate required oversight, trial criteria be delegated to the Director of Sustainable Communities, in consultation with the member with responsibility for Climate and Sustainable Travel.

The trial is necessary to:

·  Fulfil recommended actions of the B&NES On-street EV Charging Strategy (2020).

·  Identify commercial products that enable on-street EV charging from home energy supply.

·  Allow residents with no off-street parking to access the lowest cost most convenient charging option, mitigating social equity issues around charging access.

·  Provide an alternative to the prohibited dangerous practice of trailing charging cables across footways, an activity which is increasing, and for which B&NES has limited enforcement capability.

·  Provide cable channel performance and operational data, informing B&NES future policy regarding product approval, asset ownership, maintenance, and costs.

Trial focus in informed by a WECA assessment conducted as part of their EV charging investment proposal (2022), where the technology options for on-street home charging were reviewed and cable channels identified as the favoured solution necessary of investigation.

A range of EV charging infrastructure is necessary to achieve future UK strategic goals.  Cable channels would be one element, alongside complimentary charging infrastructure such as on-street public chargers located in street furniture.  These other on-street options are planned to be introduced in collaboration with commercial charge point operators (CPO’s) through negotiated concessions as part of a 2023 WECA led bid for Office of Zero Emmission Vehicles (OZEV) funding.