A beloved UK seaside town is about to close a deal on a massive infrastructure development to help meet a five-year deadline.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced earlier this week that he was reinstating the 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles across the country. And now Brighton, on the southern coast, is tipped to be the first to launch a £130m project to produce and install thousands of charging stations or points for EVs.
The number of electric-powered vehicles is set to inevitably grow before 2030, as manufacturers are set to be banned from selling new petrol or diesel cars by the start of the new decade.
Brighton and Hove City Council is now setting out to build more than 6,000 curbside chargers throughout district if the £130m agreement is confirmed. The deal, which is backed by a government grant and private investors, will be Britain’s biggest EV on-street charging project yet, which is hoped to encourage other counties to do the same.
The new project aims to make EV charging available to people without driveways from Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb to Mile Oak. The rollout of public and accessible EV charging stations is a crucial move in encouraging drivers to switch to EVs. But the council has said the project is still ‘subject to contract’. If all goes well, the deal should be finalised by the end of April or early May.
While, in January, the council announced that it had won a £2.8m government grant, the money from this pot is set to be used to build an additional 500 EV charging points a year for the next three consecutive years. Labour councillor Trevor Muten, the council’s cabinet member for transport and parking, says: “Come to Brighton and recharge your batteries.”
The council is one of the first in the country to use the government’s new Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) funding. The scheme aims to support councils across England with planning and implementing charging infrastructure for Brits without driveways or garages.
There are currently more than 680,000 domestic charging stations in England alone, with this number expected to rise over the coming years.
The 2030 ban follows the UK’s efforts to reduce carbon emissions and align the UK with global efforts to meet net-zero targets. The ban which will stop the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, with new hybrids being banned from 2035.
However, the ban won’t affect current owners of petrol and diesel cars and will allow existing vehicles to be used and purchased after the deadline. Nevertheless, owners of high-emission vehicles may see harsher driving restrictions as Clean Air Zones are expected to expand, making fuel-powered vehicles difficult to drive in certain areas.
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