Westminster provides more plug-in points for electric cars

In an effort to make driving an electric car a more attractive proposition, Westminster City Council is to provide more kerbside spots to charge the vehicles within the borough.


Situated in the heart of London, Westminster is keen to encourage low emission vehicles and as part of its ongoing strategy is installing ten new on-street recharging points throughout the borough.

The points will be dotted around the borough outside homes, offices and in prime locations in the West End.

The council already provides 48 charging points in 13 of its car parks but until now, there have only been two on-street sockets, situated in Covent Garden.

“We are leading the way in encouraging greener forms of car travel which will help minimise our impact on the environment,” said Cllr Alan Bradley, the borough’s cabinet member for street environment.

“We want to make it as practical and convenient as possible for people to use electric cars so having charging points easily available on streets is an essential move which can only help tackle the serious problems with air pollution and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

“We hope other councils will follow suit across London and beyond so we can have a truly comprehensive system of charging points across the UK.”

The Council hopes all posts will be installed by Easter, and it is in talks with several private companies keen to adopt their own fleets of environmentally friendly vehicles.

The posts, which cost £3,300 each, will be funded by Transport for London, the Energy Saving Trust and EDF Energy.

Users will have to pay a one-off fee to cover administration costs to register and use the posts. Thereafter use of recharging posts is free.

They will then receive a personalised key to wave close to the post, which will trigger a welcome message and start charging.

Sam Bond

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