Opinion

From March 25, it will become illegal to use a hand-held mobile phone while driving under virtually any circumstance, following amendments to the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations.

Supporting the growth in demand for electric vehicles (EVs) continues to be a central challenge for local authorities in the fight for cleaner air and reduced carbon emissions. Despite the success of new initiatives such as the recent involvement of the Energy Saving Trust in helping to make both fleet and private vehicles more cost efficient, the spectre of inaccessibility and hindered consumer confidence remains. Perennial risks of ‘charging blackspots’ emerging in small towns and rural areas mean that unless the rollout of new chargepoints is able to match the pace of consumer demand, we risk compromising our mission to ban the sale of fossil fuel-powered vehicles by 2030 and slowing our overall progress on the road to net zero.

To succeed, local authorities need the confidence to install chargepoints en masse in the right locations both to demonstrate economic viability in the long term and to ensure swathes of the population are not left behind.