Connected Kerb, an electric vehicle (EV) charging contractor, will review 11 council owned and operated car parks for charging feasibility with the potential to expand to an additional 22 sites throughout Wealden.

There are currently 23 EV charge points distributed throughout the district.

The appointment comes after Wealden District Council’s climate emergency declaration, with the intention of working toward net zero by 2050 or earlier for both the council and the Wealden district area.

In 2019, transport emissions account for 46.7% of total Wealden district emissions – 19.7% 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.

The council’s portfolio holder for climate change Cllr Roy Galley said: ‘As the proportion of electric vehicles grows annually, as does the requirement to provide a reliable, accessible and rigorous charging network to support the growing demand of electric vehicles.

‘As part of our commitments under the Climate Emergency Plan, we have successfully appointed Connected Kerb and are delighted to work with the company and share a parallel ambition to boost public charging throughout Wealden.

‘Connected Kerb aims to install 190,000 publicly accessible AC chargers in the UK by 2030 and has already worked closely with neighbouring local authorities in Kent and West Sussex.’