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At last! Electric car charge points to be installed in the Vale

A network of new charge points for electric vehicles is due to go live across North Dorset next month.


A total of 44 chargers will be unveiled in Dorset Council-owned car parks, including those in Shaftesbury, Blandford, Gillingham and Sherborne. Work has already begun in providing power to the new sites, carried out by SSE and Western Power Distribution.

The charge points will then be installed in mid-February by Joju Charging, which manages similar projects for councils across southern central England.
The sites will be live by the end of February, in a move which will greatly extend existing coverage across North Dorset.

Contentiously, motorists will be charged both for the car parking and use of the charge points. A two- hour charge will cost from £4 to £13, depending on the type of car being charged. The move comes as figures show a leap in EV car sales in 2020. The total share of the new-car market taken by pure-electric cars was 6.6%, while plug-in hybrids had a further 4.1% market share.

A number of electric models made the list of top sellers in December 2020, with the Tesla Model 3 the best-selling car in December, followed by the Volkswagen ID.3 in fourth place.

The Dorset project is being paid for by Joju and funding partner Gronn Kontakt, a subsidiary of Statkraft, a Norwegian renewables firm. In return for providing the sites, Dorset Council will take a slice of the charging revenue for the next 15 years.

It’s thought that the charge points will most likely be used by visitors who need a top-up and Dorset Council is now on the lookout for other sites which may include car parks owned by town councils, businesses or leisure interests.

Chris Jardine, technical director at Joju Charging, said: “The Government has sent a clear signal with the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030 – the future of transport is electric. That means installing millions of EV chargers in homes, businesses and public places.”

Urban areas with suitable power supplies are inevitably going to better served, with the costs of laying low voltage cables to outlying sites driving prices up by tens of thousands.
The number of electric vehicle users in any given area is another factor, said Chad Warlow, account manager at JoJu Charging. He added: “At the moment our clients are installing to encourage the uptake of EVs in a given area.”
There will have to be moves by Dorset Council to better supply the Blackmore Vale. At present, there is a charge point desert across a large swathe of The Vale and Cranborne Chase south of A30, from Salisbury to the A37.
But Mr Warlow added that his company would work with Dorset Council to try and identify more sites. “It is a rolling programme over the next few years that aims to ensure geographical coverage, to ensure that no area is left out.”

Dorset Council declared
a climate emergency in 2019 and is committed to becoming carbon-neutral by 2040. It is also committed
to helping work towards the whole of Dorset becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. Councillor Ray Bryan said: “Providing drivers with more charge points for their electric vehicles is a step towards carbon-neutral. It also helps make life easier for motorists seeking more environmentally friendly methods of travel. With Government plans to phase out sales of new petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2030, and more people seeking to go electric, now is the time to offer Dorset’s residents, businesses and visitors sustainable travel options.”

The car parks hosting the new charge points in North Dorset are: Langton Road, Blandford; Gas Lane, Gillingham; Bell
Street, Shaftesbury; Old Market Yard, Sherborne and Coldharbour, Sherborne.

Residents and businesses are encouraged to provide suggestions for locations of further charging points by completing the online form at dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/parking/charging-your-electric-vehicle.aspx.

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