More than 200 electric vehicle charging stations planned across Sheffield city region

Sheffield City Region documents show plans are in place to install 197 ‘fast chargers’ and and a further 32 ‘rapid chargers’ across the county.

The project is expected to cost just shy of £2.7 million and is part of a wider cash injection from central government of about £33.6m.

The charging points will be rolled out predominantly in urban centres and ‘key employment locations’ across the region.

The investment is aimed to coincide with an increase in electric vehicles and to lower the carbon footprint of the region – the SCR wants to achieve net zero emissions by 2040.

A report will go to the mayoral combined authority meeting on July 27 seeking acceptance of the funding.

Leaders will also approve the process aiming to bring forward business cases for both schemes over the next 18 months.

Last month, the government launched A New Deal for Britain, which set out the first steps in stimulating the economy following Covid-19 pandemic.

As part of the strategy, £73.6m of funding has been allocated to SCR for supporting ‘immediately deliverable’ infrastructure schemes and the development of housing schemes on brownfield land.

The electric charging investment falls into this tranche of funding.

Colin Blackburn, SCR assistant director of housing, infrastructure and planning, said: “The reduction in the use of diesel and electric vehicles will reduce the SCRs carbon footprint and improve air quality in local environments.”

“This would make an important contribution to encouraging the acceleration in the decarbonisation of transport within the SCR, by providing the electric vehicle infrastructure to give confidence to would-be electric vehicle owners and users to invest in and use electric vehicles."

Editor's message: Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues. The Star is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions for unlimited access to Sheffield news and information online. Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.