The news that around 150 new charging points are to be installed across parts of the borough has been welcomed by Trafford Conservatives. Under current plans, the sale of new petrol and diesel cars will be banned from 2030 meaning that infrastructure to support the use of electric vehicles will need to be delivered at pace in the coming years to support the government’s proposal for the decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet the net zero target by 2050.
At the November 2021 council Executive meeting, it was agreed to install a mixture of fast, rapid and ultra-rapid charging points across Trafford into two phases with phase one seeing 92 new charging points being installed across the borough in the first three months of 2022. The rollout will be financed under lease arrangement with Be.EV (Iduna) under an existing procurement programme undertaken by Transport for Greater Manchester. Opportunities for future phases to be rolled out will use a capital allocation of £500k which was secured by the Conservative Group to an Amendment to the 2020/21 Council Budget.
Welcoming progress on the rollout of the charging points, Cllr. Dave Morgan, Shadow Executive Member for Environmental and Regulatory Services said “This is great news for Trafford and the planet and will give motorists some more confidence when considering purchasing an electric vehicle. The borough declared a Climate Emergency in 2018 and this decision will go some way to help the borough become carbon neutral by 2038.
“Trafford Conservatives had been asking for some time for an update on progress of the delivery of electric vehicle charging points, especially as Conservatives had secured £500k of funding for new charging points. Now we know that the funding will be used in future phases of the rollout programme, we will be lobbying the council to ensure that the funding is used for what it was intended for, as soon as possible.”
