Electric vehicle ‘charging super hub’ plan for Lancaster Park and Ride

Plans to create an electric vehicle “charging super hub” in Lancaster are being developed by Lancashire County Council.

The council says it is looking to work in partnership with BP Chargemaster to develop the hub at Lancaster Park & Ride in Caton Road, alongside other sites in Lancaster city centre, Morecambe, and Carnforth.

It said plans were to provide an inital 150 parking bays in Lancashire, either at the side of the road or in its own car parks.

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The county council has already installed electric vehicle charging units at Preston Bus Station, and has created a page on its website to keep people updated on the introduction of charge points across the county.

Daniel Heery from Charge My Street, a Lancaster based social enterprise that recently installed charge points at Lancaster Boys and Girls Club in Dallas Road, said: “We are seeing demand for EVs rising and the more chargepoints that go in, the more confident people will be in switching away from petrol and diesel.

“We have 12 years to halt climate change so it’s up to everyone to get on and do their bit.”

The county council said: “The county council is installing two different types of charge units.

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“These will include 50kWh Rapid charge points which will allow most vehicles to take a full charge in less than an hour and 7kWh charge points that are more suited to dwell times of two hours or longer.

“The mix of these units will depend on location, power supply and demand.

“The installation program is underway with site surveys and electrical connection requests in progress.

“A list of sites, progress and availability will be kept up to date on this web page.

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“This information and how to use the machines is also available on the BP Chargemaster site which includes the wider availability of their network for those travelling further afield.”

In October, Lancaster City Council received a grant from the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) for 75 per cent of the cost of installing double charging points at five of its public car parks and one privately managed car parks.

The grant is from a new £2.5m fund from OLEV and to qualify for funding, the points had to be close to residential areas and an electricity supply. The points are scheduled to be in place by the end of March next year and will be located at the Charter House, Auction Mart and Upper Leonardgate car parks in Lancaster and the Morecambe Library and West View car parks in Morecambe.