Fear lack of electric car chargers could hit tourism

Tourism in the East of England could suffer if the region does not install more electric car charging points, a councillor warned.

Rob Colwell, a Liberal Democrat member of Norfolk County Council, said he was worried because more people were moving to electric vehicles.

The government said the number of public electric charge points had increased by 63% in the region since April 2023.

In the eastern region, there are about 5,000 publicly available chargers, out of 61,000 in the country.

The government target is to have 300,000 public charging points in the UK by 2030.

So far this year – an average of 61 extra have been installed every day.

If the government target is to be hit – that number needs to double.

Mr Colwell said: "I think there is concern for business confidence... we are a really big tourism area and it's a huge part of our economy.

"It does worry me that potentially people could be put off visiting Norfolk if they can't change their electric vehicles.

"So I think a super rapid roll out is needed."

Jamie Glerum is the chief executive of The Charge which hopes to build an electric car charging service station on the outskirts of Diss on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, although it was rejected by South Norfolk Council on Wednesday.

He said his firm was also developing sites in Felixstowe, Lowestoft and "hoping to develop in Harleston as well".

He agreed more charging points were needed in the region.

"If you're going from Bury St Edmunds [in Suffolk] to the coast, it's a desert," he said.

Jess Shanahan, a motoring journalist who lives in Norfolk, said more government support to encourage people to go electric was needed.

"I think it would be good to have subsidies again. That really helped a lot of people buy their first electric car and something could be done around the VAT charged for public electric charge points," she said.

"At the moment if you go out and charge publicly it's going to cost around the same as filling up with petrol or diesel - which isn't ideal as a lot of people buy electric cars to save money."

Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council's Conservative cabinet member for transport, said the authority was "working very hard" to install more charge points.

"We are also looking at residential streets where people don't have their own parking space," he said.

"How are they going to charge up there? We are working to solve that particular riddle."

A Department for Transport spokeswoman said: “The number of public charge points has increased by 63% in the East of England since April 2023 and we are continuing to support this local roll out with over £42m to install charge points for those with off-street parking in the region.”

BBC Politics East is broadcast on BBC One at 10:00 BST on Sunday, and is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer afterwards.

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