UNRELIABLE electric vehicle charging points are leading to calls for the Isle of Wight Council to install new ones.

It is also hoped installing new, and more, charging points will encourage people to buy electric vehicles and move away from petrol and diesel cars.

While the presence of charging points has increased in recent years, only a few are on Isle of Wight Council owned land, with the authority receiving requests to improve facilities from Islanders and visitors.

The charge points in council car parks are not run by the council and are becoming 'increasingly unreliable', the authority says.

A charge point in St John’s Road car park, in Sandown, has been disconnected since last summer but the operator has not sought to reconnect it. There are also issues with the Chapel Street car park charger in Newport.

The authority says it is receiving an increasing number of complaints and is seeking to replace the points with a more reliable and user-friendly network.

Now, under the Central Southern Region framework launched by Hampshire County Council in 2018, the council can install 15 new chargers in nine locations across the Island, providing 27 sockets, with no cost to the council.

It is thought leasing the chargers through the scheme could make the council around £6,500 a year, with no council investment needed or ongoing operational costs.

The council will have no control over how much it will cost people to use the charge points though but it hopes the market will keep the tariffs at competitive levels.

The Isle of Wight Council's cabinet is being asked to approve the installation of the charge points at its meeting next week.

If it is given the go-ahead, the chargers could be installed and operational by the summer.

If the charging points prove popular, the cabinet is also being asked to allow senior council officers the authority to expand the charging point network, installing more, as demand grows.

The new charge points could be installed in the following car parks:

  • Chapel Street, Newport
  • Sea Street, Newport
  • Seaclose Park
  • Quay Road, Ryde
  • St Thomas Street (upper), Ryde
  • St John's Road, Sandown
  • Cross Street, Cowes
  • Central Car Park, Ventnor
  • Moa Place, Freshwater