£2.5m to be spent on more than 1,000 electric car chargepoints

The funding will support the on-street residential chargepoint scheme which helps people access charging infrastructure near their homes when they don’t have off-street parking.

It will go towards helping local authorities to install chargepoints, which can be built into existing structures like lampposts.

The scheme aims to encourage even more people to choose an electric vehicle by making it easier to charge their cars near home, following a 158 per cent increase in battery electric vehicle sales in 12 months.

The borough does have several charging points already including at Mona Street car park in Wigan and the Holiday Inn Express at Martland Park.

The scheme has already seen 16 local authorities prepared to install 1,200 chargepoints this year. Transport secretary Grant Shapps said he was doubling funding to meet demand and accelerate the take-up of electric vehicles as the UK moves towards net zero emissions by 2050 to improve air quality.

He added: “It’s fantastic that there are now more than 20,000 publicly accessible chargepoints and double the number of electric vehicle chargepoints than petrol stations, but we want to do much more. It’s vital that electric vehicle drivers feel confident about the availability of chargepoints near their homes, and that charging a car is seen as easy as plugging in a smartphone.”