Blackburn with Darwen Council has begun the process of having 900 chargepoints installed in the area.
Last summer the Council applied for LEVI (Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure) funding for £1.6m, which has since been confirmed. And the authority’s growth boss, counsellor Quesir Mahmood, has given the green light for a tendering process to appoint a chargepoint operator (CPO) to help with the scheme.
The rollout of the chargers is planned in two stages. Phase one will install 260 chargepoints at 75 pre-selected, purpose-built sites at locations around the borough where residents don’t have access to off-street parking. This will run up to April 2027. The Council will use the LEVI funding to develop each of the sites, providing civils groundwork, signs, lines and Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) to protect each of the sites. The CPO which wins the tender will provide, install and maintain the chargepoints plus arrange for the DNO (distributor network operator) connection.
Phase two will plan for between 346 and 640 further chargepoints (depending on the numbers submitted by the CPOs during the tender) 90% of which will be installed directly on-street with the remaining 10% to be installed on council-owned car parks . This will run up to April 2033.
Over 900 potential streets have been identified where residents don’t have access to off-street parking. These will form the pool of locations where phase two sites will be located. The Council will use the remainder of the LEVI funding to facilitate these locations with signs, lines and TRO where required. The CPO which wins the tender will again provide, install, maintain all of the chargepoints and DNO connection.
In addition, the Council is now allowing residents to make an application and fund the installation of a cable channel at their address, as a separate project. The Council says the cable channel project and the LEVI-funded project will provide two separate options for residents without off-street parking to be able to charge their vehicles, either by using their own electric supply via the cable channel or by using the public chargepoints provided as part of the LEVI funded project.
