Calls for electric charging points on every street in Salisbury

The chargers in both Brown Street and College car park are "broken beyond repair".

This is because they were installed "a long time ago" - Brown Street's being in 2014 - and technology has moved on, with the parts to fix them no longer manufactured anywhere.

Cllr Mark McClelland, Wiltshire Council's cabinet member for transport, waste, street scene and flooding, said it's "impossible to repair them".

Brown Street car park. Picture by Spencer Mulholland

But Cllr Paul Sample, representing Salisbury St Edmunds on Salisbury City Council and Wiltshire Council, says this is not about "one or two broken EV points".

He says the Conservatives "need to be much more ambitious", adding: "They have been in charge of Wiltshire Council ever since 2009. They have had over a decade to get their act together on EV charging points.

"In an official Department of Transport report, published last month, Wiltshire Council was well below average on the installation of EV Charging devices."

The leading council, Westminster, provides 392 EV charging points per 100,000 residents, with Wiltshire providing just 28 per 100,000 residents.

Cllr Sample says we need "an ambitious plan to put EV charging points into every street in the city – even those with old-style concrete street lights".

He adds: "The top of Culver Street Car Stack should become a high-speed EV charging station for electrical vehicles and hybrids. The income could be used to pay for the roll-out of the wider city street EV charging scheme across Salisbury."

Independent cllr for Harnham, Annie Riddle, added: "Fear of being stranded is the biggest thing deterring people from buying all-electric cars. If we want people to visit Salisbury to revive our economy we need to assure them that they can rely on being able to charge their vehicles. It doesn’t sound as though that will happen till next year. Why has Wiltshire been so slow to respond to this problem?

"And while we’re on the subject, how many EV charging points will the planners at Trowbridge require developers to provide on all the new housing estates that are about to be inflicted on Harnham? Is there a policy about that?”

The cost of installing public charging points is not available, but according to the RAC, a home charge point typically costs around £800.

They can cost significantly more or less, depending on the type you go for. 

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