Wealden receives £157K to help roll out of EV charging points across district

A government grant of almost £157,000 has been allocated to Wealden District Council to continue the roll out of electric vehicle charging points in its car parks.

The Secretary of State for Transport has approved a grant of £156,800 to the council to support the installation of EV chargers at a number of car parks across the Wealden district in partnership with Connected Kerb, an electric vehicle charging contractor.

The first phase of locations includes Lower Road, Forest Row; The Willows, Alfriston; Croft Road, Crowborough; Mill Road, Heathfield; Luxford Road, Uckfield; North Road, Pevensey Bay; The Greyhound, Wadhurst: and Horsefields, East Dean.

Also included in this first phase are bays in the Vicarage Lane car park in Hailsham and bays in the South Road car park, also in Hailsham.

The installations are part of the council's ongoing efforts to support the transition to low carbon transport and to improve local air quality. ​The aspiration is that all residents who drive electric vehicles (EVs), or are considering making the switch, have convenient access to EV charging.​

Councillor Pam Doodes, the council’s lead member for Climate Change, said, “This is exciting and I am delighted we have received this substantial amount of grant funding which will help us deliver the first phase of electric vehicle charging in our car parks.

“Enabling more people to easily recharge their electrical vehicles will be a significant step along the way to achieving our goal of reducing carbon emissions across the district.”

Within Wealden there are currently 33 EV charge points distributed throughout the district and the council recognises the need to provide additional public charge points.

At the heart of Wealden District Council’s climate emergency declaration sits the requirement to transform its transport systems to low and zero emission alternatives, with the intention of working toward net-zero CO₂ by 2050 or earlier for both the council and the Wealden district area.

In 2020, transport emissions account for 44.9% of total Wealden district emissions – 16.5% higher than the national average.

Recent research has identified that the potential demand for EV charging across East Sussex will increase over the next 10 years with numbers of EVs locally going from 3,573 to 33,945 (by 2025), to 98,054 by 2030.

This is particularly relevant in Wealden where almost 40% of all EVs first registered in East Sussex in 2021 were in Wealden.