4.1 Cumberland is a large, sparsely populated area with a small number of urban centres and only one city, Carlisle. The geography of the area presents problems for anyone considering buying an electric car and to make that choice more realistic the Council is interested in four market sectors:
- densely urban streets where residents have no access to private driveways for parking and recharging
- rural locations where the volume of demand is likely to be relatively low and therefore unattractive to commercial suppliers
- popular visitor destinations which may be located in remote countryside, but which see parking durations of several hours at a time (allowing good opportunities to recharge)
- larger city and town centre car parks where commercial opportunities may be available. Page 6 Cumberland Electric Vehicle Strategy
4.2 The initial target was to provide a charge point within 5 minutes’ walk of every home; however, there is some recognition that this may not be relevant in every case. Where this is not possible we will install charging points at public carparks / locations to enable residents to charge their vehicles at these locations as an alternative to their homes. In isolated situations where the installation of a charging point is not feasible alternative methods will be considered to allow residents to charge their vehicles.
4.3 The Council wishes to support the local tourism industry and recognise that many of Cumbria’s 20 million annual visitors will soon be driving an electric vehicle and will require accessible charge points in all areas of the county, including Hadrian’s Wall, national park and National Trust car parks, country parks and nature reserves, popular villages and attractions and the plethora of local provision (village hall car parks; ‘beauty spot’ car parks and the like).
4.4 Technology is changing and advancing rapidly and there is a need to make sure that public infrastructure has the ability to evolve and adapt in response to externally driven changes without burdening local taxpayers with additional costs in future years. This strategy will therefore be flexible and responsive to the rapidly changing external environment and will be reviewed annually.
4.5 The strategy will adopt a multi-strand approach:
- one will look at areas of dense housing where residents would be less likely to have private driveways in order to re-charge their vehicle
- another will concentrate on publicly accessible car parks in locations spread across the county and including places popular with visitors
- the third strand will look at the larger car parks which are likely to be of interest to commercial operators
4.6 The strategy is intended to produce the following outcomes:
- assist residents to make the switch to electric vehicles by provision of easily accessible charge points close to where they live
- increase the proportion of electric vehicles in the county as we approach the 2035 deadline for the phase-out of new ICE vehicles
- a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to help address the climate emergency
- better air quality and improved conditions in Cumberland’s Air Quality Action Zones which are concentrated around major roads
- support for the tourism industry which will need to show visitors that there is the infrastructure in place for them to recharge their EV while in the area
- futureproofing for the county as a whole as the economy moves to decarbonise