Barnet is already said to be leading the way in London with the rollout of EV charge points, reports Simon Allin, Local Democracy Reporter

The number of electric vehicle charging points in Barnet will more than double under plans approved by senior councillors.

Barnet Council’s cabinet agreed to award a 15-year contract to Trojan Energy for the supply, installation, maintenance and operation of 793 non-lamp column electric vehicle (EV) charge points during a meeting on Monday (26th).

The council has already installed 650 EV charge points since 2018, with a further 120 set to be rolled out in town centres during the current financial year.

It wants to continue increasing the size of the network to help residents prepare for the expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez) across the whole of London. Earlier this year, the council won more than £5million of government grant funding to support the provision of a further 793 non-lamp charge points plus 500 lamp column charge points.

Alan Schneiderman, the council’s cabinet member for environment and climate change, told Monday’s meeting that by next year the borough would have more than 2,000 EV charge points in total.

He said this would account for one-in-six of all the charge points in London, making Barnet “one of the leading councils, if not the leading council, when it comes to electric vehicle charge points”.

Cllr Schneiderman added that the council was set to comfortably exceed a target set in its manifesto for last year’s local election manifesto to provide 1,219 EV charging points by 2030.

Barnet has the second-highest number of new electric vehicle registrations in London, with 2,227 new vehicles registered in the third quarter of 2022. Demand is expected to continue to rise in the run-up to the government’s ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in 2030.

Boosting the number of EV charge points will also contribute to the council’s drive to reduce the borough’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2042.

The 793 extra charge points are expected to be installed in 65 residential streets by the end of March next year.

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