A LACK of charging points in Stratford town centre is driving electric vehicle owners away.
That is the view of frustrated motorist Sam Reading-East who told the Observer he was forced to sell his electric car and go back to a diesel due to there being so few charging points in the town.
He said the need for more charging points in Stratford was often discussed on EV forums with posters saying they now stayed away from the town because there was no where to charge their cars.
And Mr Reading-East said the positioning of some of the few EV charging points there were in the town centre had been ill thought out -citing those on Chestnut Walk.
He explained that due to their low voltage, cars needed to be charged on them all day but the parking bays they were geared up to serve were only two hour spaces.
Mr Reading-East said: “This is a nonsense. What is the point of having electric vehicle chargers there when you can’t park there long enough? To make matters worse petrol and diesel cars can park there too so there is not always space for any electric vehicles.
“There are also two charging points in Church Street car park, but this car park isn’t even accessible to the public during the day.”
He added that there were certain towns in south Warwickshire which still did not have any EV charging points at all, such as Shipston.
He claimed that funding had been put aside by Warwickshire County Council for eight EV charging points in the town but none had come to fruition.
A WCC spokesperson said in Stratford there were currently 156 EV charging points available for public use in a combination of on-street sites, off-street council operated car parks and privately owned parking areas.
They continued: “Parking and EV charging is an area where a balance needs to be struck between providing sufficient time for vehicles to charge while encouraging turnover of parking spaces. Most EV drivers use short stay parking, such as that available on-street in Warwickshire’s towns, as a top-up charge, with fuller charging usually occurring at home. Alternatively, many off-street car parks offer longer stay parking where a greater charge can take place.
“In response to an increasing uptake of EVs in Warwickshire, the council has recently adopted an EV only parking policy at on-street charging locations. This will help to prevent blocking of EV chargepoints by fossil-fuel powered vehicles and will be managed through its existing parking enforcement processes.”
