A report updating the Committee on the outcome of the Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging on the public highway trial that commenced in April 2021. The report also seeks the Committee's authorisation to permit the Assistant Director of Environmental & Commercial Services to enter into ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Across the Public’ licences with applicants under the terms of the licence described within the report.

The Committee received a report on the outcome of the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging on the public highway trial that had commenced in April 2021. The report also sought the Committee's authorisation to formally permit the Assistant Director of Environmental & Commercial Services to enter into ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Across the Public’ licences with applicants using the terms and conditions described within the report. The following documents were appended to the report:

The report explained that encouraging private vehicle owners to move from higher polluting petrol and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles would contribute towards achieving the ambitions set out within the Reading Climate Change Strategy. However, the nature of Reading’s urban environment and its high number of narrow and terraced residential streets meant that, in many parts of the town, many residents did not have any off-street parking which in turn presented a challenge in relation to the provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It recognised that in order to encourage more residents to use EVs there needed to be options for those residents whose electric vehicles would be parked on the street outside their homes. This necessitated the need to plan for and allow charging on or across the public highway.

The Council had conducted a trial that enabled residents to enter into a licence agreement with the Council to allow them to privately and safely charge their electric vehicle whilst it was parked on the public highway outside their home. The trail had garnered 71 expressions of interest following which eight properties had entered into a licence agreement with the Council. Of the eight trial properties two had opted for a cable protector solution, two had chosen a drainage channel solution and four had opted for the ‘Kerbo channel’ slot drain solution. Details of two of the solutions were set out in Appendix 1 attached to the report. The main reasons given by the enquirers who had not proceeded to the trial stage were that they were either still in the process of purchasing an electric vehicle and so were not yet able to proceed and/or that they were conscious that the licence did not secure a parking space in front of their house to guarantee that they could charge their vehicle overnight.

The report sought the Committee’s permission to formalise the process for the issuing of Electric Vehicle Charging Across the Public Highway licences. The terms of the licence included a range of criteria and conditions to reduce the risk to the public and to the applicant. A copy of the proposed conditions were included within Appendix 2. The cost of the licence would be borne by the applicant, with the Highway fee for the application set to match the vehicle crossing application fee, which was currently £75. The fee would be reviewed regularly as part of the annually ‘fees & charges’ review.

The cost of the channel installation and/or cable protector options would initially be covered by money in the LEVI fund, as part of the on-street EV Charging rollout scheme delivery programme.  However, once the delivery programme had been completed all new applications would be required to cover the cost of installation themselves. A report on the progress of the EV charging installation programme would be submitted to the Committee on an annual basis and would include details on the uptake of the channel installation and/or cable protector solutions.

Resolved –

(1)           That the outcome of the Electric Vehicle charging on or across the public highway trail be noted;

(2)           That the Assistant Director of Environmental & Commercial Services be authorised to enter into ‘Electric Vehicle Charging Across the Public Highway’ licences with applicants under the terms and conditions described within the report and set out in detail in Appendix 2 attached to the report.