Agenda item

Report of the Director of Transportation and Highways

The Cabinet Member considered a report and received a presentation of the Director of Transportation and Highways concerning two objections that had been received to an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order advertised on 19 March 2020. Two rapid chargepoints had been installed on Binley Road and to ensure a turnover of use, parking was restricted to 1-hour maximum stay.  The order was introduced to restrict the parking and became operational on 27th March. A copy of the order schedule, the issues raised in the objections and the responses were set out in appendices to the report. As with Minute 36 above, the objectors were offered the opportunity to submit additional comments in writing in response to the report and one further response was received following the publication of the meeting documentation. Both objectors had been provided with additional information on watching the live stream meeting.

The report indicated that with electric vehicles being key to the development of the automotive industry, following a successful bid, there was the opportunity to promote a move towards electric taxis. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) had made £500m available to grow the market for ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEVs) from 2015-20 and offered grants to support the wider use of electric and hybrid vehicles. The City Council had been successful in securing £1.2m funding in March 2017 to install 39 rapid charging point for taxis and private hire cars in the city.

The priority of the project has been to encourage existing taxi drivers to purchase an electric taxi by establishing an accessible network of charging infrastructure within the City for use by electric taxis. The City Council had installed 39 rapid chargepoints city wide.

The report highlighted that the whole of Coventry was declared an Air Quality Management Area in 2009 because of high levels of Nitrogen Oxide (NO2) and more recently the Government’s ‘UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Oxide Concentrations’ document issued in July 2017 identified Coventry as a city where NO2 exceedance was expected to continue beyond 2020. The Council’s Cabinet had approved the local air quality action plan in July 2020 to address this. Diesel vehicles, especially the older diesel vehicles which characterise Coventry’s taxi fleet, were a major source of NO2 so the adoption of ULEV taxi and private hire vehicles would represent a clear public health benefit for those who live or work in the city. This project should be seen as part of a wider strategy to promote electric vehicles.

While the charging points installed were specifically for taxis, the Council had aspired for the charging points to also be available for use by private electric cars. This worked on the basis that taxi charging got priority and a booking system was now in place to facilitate this.

The city wide locations where the 39 rapid chargepoints had been installed, had a parking restriction only permitting electric vehicles, whilst charging, to stay for 1 hour with no return within 2 hours.  They had been installed using ETROs to enable monitoring of the situation/any problems that may arise. Where the chargepoints had been in the vicinity of residential, retail, or commercial properties, localised consultation had been carried out and where necessary, consent had been sought from adjacent properties. The locations were initially identified by taxi drivers during the bid process.

The Cabinet Member was informed that the first objector had raised concerns relating to the conservation area around the Binley Road which they felt was a very protected area and not an appropriate location for the rapid chargepoints. It was clarified that further guidance had been sought and planning permission was not required.

The second objector had raised issues that were not specific to the order. The officer detailed the concerns highlighted, including the additional comments, and provided responses to the concerns raised. Some initial concerns related to the station area and these had been referred to the project manager for the station project.

RESOLVED that:

(1) Having considered the objections received to the City of Coventry (Binley Road) (Electric Charging Places) (Experimental) Order 2020, approval be given to the order being made permanent.

(2) It be noted that the issues raised in objection two are general in nature and relates to outside of the parking bays and the advertised restrictions and it be endorsed that if they are raised in the future, they are not considered again.