The first 40 CityEV lamp column charging points for electric vehicles have been installed by Barnet Council as part of an ambitious programme to promote green energy.
• Councillor Dean Cohen, Chair of the Environment Committee, tests out one of our new charging points
A further 40 will be installed later in the year in the second phase of the project this autumn. An additional 30 stand-alone electric vehicle charging points will be added to car parks in the borough throughout the year. There will be 22 outside of the two new state-of-the-art leisure centres being built in Victoria Recreation Ground, New Barnet, and Barnet Copthall, Mill Hill. A further eight will be installed in other car parks across the borough. The council is working in partnership with Go Ultra Low Cities, who issued a grant to fund these units.
The new charging points are being placed in convenient locations where residents can charge their vehicles for as little as 25p per hour. Residents can top up, or take a full charge if they leave it charging overnight – which takes around eight hours. A full charge will be enough for most electric cars to travel more than 100 miles. The cost of covering that distance in a traditional petrol- or diesel-powered vehicle would be considerably higher.
The borough’s electric vehicle charging points offer contactless card payment, meaning that drivers can access the charge point using their bank card or smart phone, as they would at a supermarket for example. Their locations have been plotted onto a map to make it easier for residents to find the one nearest to them: barnet.gov.uk/electriccharging
Councillor Dean Cohen, Chairman of the Barnet Council Environment Committee, said: “We expect the popularity of fully electric and hybrid cars to grow and grow in the coming years. Electric vehicles are cheaper, cleaner and greener than conventional cars, and an increasingly convenient way of getting from A to B. We are happy to support their development, improving air quality in our borough and giving our residents more options for getting about in an eco-friendly way.”