Top 50 Indie Rontec has been granted planning permission to knock down a car wash and replace it with six EV charging bays at its Mill Lane Service Station in Newton-le-Willows.
The site currently comprises a petrol filling station with a single-storey forecourt shop. The forecourt has four fuel pumps in a four-square configuration. The car wash is located to the rear of the site.
The car wash will be replaced with six 150kW rapid chargers. The charging bays will have a canopy over them, which will be a cantilevered steel structure finished in grey with a glazed roof. Overall height will be 3.5m. The canopy will have 80-watt LED bulkhead fittings installed underneath.
There will also be associated EVC infrastructure which includes a sub-station and LV and EV meter cabinets.
Rapleys, representing Rontec at St Helens Council’s planning committee meeting, told those present that the EV charging area would blend in well and not harm the character of the area.
There was an objection to the EV charging bays on the grounds that the substation could emit electromagnetic radiation. This was investigated and it was found that any radiation from the substation would be much lower than ‘action level limits’ laid out by an EU directive. Rontec had been asked to reposition the substation away from some adjacent flats but said this was not possible.
