Kirklees rollout of more than 100 new electric vehicle charging points begin

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority supported by the Local Transport Fund, is installing up to 88 electric vehicle charging points in West Yorkshire - 17 of these sites are in Kirklees.

This is part of the £3 million-plus scheme to help improve the county’s air quality.

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Each of the new sites, which are free to use until the end of October 2021, will have two bays. One will be exclusively for taxis and private hire vehicles and the second is for all other users.

The rapid charging points can typically take under an hour to provide a full vehicle charge depending on the vehicle. Parking will be free in pay and display car parks but limited to a one hour stay.

This will support Kirklees Council’s ambitious plans to make the borough carbon neutral by 2038.

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Councillor Naheed Mather, Cabinet Member for Greener Kirklees, said: “Our responsibility to tackle climate change is something we take very seriously.

“We have a strong an ambitious plan to make Kirklees carbon neutral by 2038 and a part of this is to invest in greener forms of transport.

“If we want more people to drive electric vehicles we need to make sure the right resources are in place and this is the first of many new electric vehicle charging points coming to Kirklees.

“We can only tackle climate change with everyone on-board so I urge people to read our plans and think about what you can do to improve our climate.”

The new charging point, installed at Oldgate car park in Huddersfield town centre, are part of a West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) initiative to encourage the use of low emissions vehicles.

As part of this plan a £1million council investment – approved by Cabinet on January20 2020 - is five new rapid charge points and 80-100 new fast charge points will be installed in public car parks and on-street to support residents and visitors to move towards electric vehicles.

This will add to Kirklees’ current network which has three rapid chargers and 22 slow to fast chargers in the public domain.

It will also support Kirklees Council’s Air Quality Action Plan which identifies the action the authority will take to improve air quality in the borough between April 2019 and March 2024.