Rotherham Council to join £8.9m South Yorkshire scheme to install up to 1,500 EV chargers
Rotherham Council is set to join a South Yorkshire-wide scheme that could see between 500 and 1,500 new electric vehicle chargers installed across the borough over the next decade, backed by a. £8.9m government investment.
A report going to cabinet on December 15 recommends that Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council takes part in the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, or LEVI, programme. The Government-backed fund is designed to speed up the rollout of public charge points, especially for people who do not have driveways and cannot easily charge at home.
Under the LEVI scheme, South Yorkshire has been awarded nearly £9m of capital funding. Around a fifth of that investment, valued at about £1.6m, is expected to be directed into Rotherham through works carried out by a private charge point operator.
Rotherham Council has been installing public chargers since 2015 and now has 108 parking bays with charging infrastructure, but demand is expected to rise sharply. Transport for the North’s projections suggest the borough could need well over a thousand residential charge points by the mid-2030s.
Depending on how commercially attractive sites prove to be, the programme is expected to deliver at least 500 charge points in the borough and potentially as many as 1,500 as the operator adds more over time. The council says even the lower figure should be enough to meet its target of having most homes within a ten-minute walk of a public charger by 2040, if sites are spread fairly across neighbourhoods.
The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority would lead the procurement and manage the contract with the operator. Day-to-day work in Rotherham, including identifying council land and streets for chargers and checking installations, would sit with the council’s EV Infrastructure Officer. A share of income from the concession is expected to help pay for that role.
Councillors are being asked to approve Rotherham’s inclusion in the scheme and to delegate decisions on sites and contracts to the Assistant Director of Property and Facilities Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Transport and local ward members. The council says ward councillors will have a key role in shaping where chargers go, taking account of local housing, parking pressures and residents’ needs.
The programme will depend on factors such as electricity grid capacity, planning and highways approvals and local consultation. An annual progress update is due to be included in the council’s Climate Emergency report, as the scheme is expected to play a key part in supporting Rotherham’s ambition to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040.