EV Charging and Road Related Services FINAL
Renfrewshire Council · 25 January 2023
Back to Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board — 25 January 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 To: Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board On: 25 January 2023 Report by: Director of Environment & Infrastructure Heading: Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Tariffs and Roads Related Fees and Charges 1. Summary 1.1 Council has previously considered and agreed the financial sustainability and outlook reports presented to Council, setting out the scale of the short and medium term financial challenge facing the Council; and that development and implementation of a transformation programme and other financial sustainability workstreams are critical to ultimately supporting the Council secure a financially sustainable position in the short and medium term. 1.2 This report sets out as part of the Council’s financial sustainability strategy to introduce charges for use of the public electric vehicle charging infrastructure and introduce charges for the discretionary road related services. This also bring the Council into alignment with many local authorities across Scotland who are currently levying a charge for electric vehicle infrastructure and for these discretionary road related services set out in section 4 of this report. The intention is for these charges to become effective from 1st April 2023. There will be a wider communications campaign in advance of the service changes. 2. Recommendations It is recommended that the Infrastructure, Land and Environment Policy Board: 2.1 Approves the electric vehicle charging tariff as set out section 3.4 of the report 2.2 Approves revised roads related charges set out in section 4 of the report
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2 3. Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure 3.1 The Council currently has 118 publicly available electric vehicle charging bays in Renfrewshire with further charging infrastructure planned for 2023. This charging infrastructure is currently available to electric vehicle owners free of charge, with the Council paying for the electricity and maintenance costs. Currently around two thirds of Local Authorities in Scotland levy a tariff charge for use of Electric Vehicle Charing Infrastructure. 3.2 The different types of electric charging infrastructure available in Renfrewshire are: • 7KW Slow – 80% charge within 7 – 8 hours, • 22KW Fast – 80% charge within 3 – 4 hours, and • 50KW Rapid – 80% charge within 45 minutes. 3.3 In addition to the charging tariff, an ‘overstay’ fee is common practice across those authorities already charging. The overstay fee is designed to prevent vehicles staying beyond the time taken to charge, thereby stopping others from accessing the charging point. Overstay fees encourage churn and dissuade users from seeing charging points as potential parking locations. The overstay period would only commence 10 minutes after the charging period had expired. 3.4 The following tariff charges are proposed for use of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure across Renfrewshire based on the charger size as set out in the table below. It is also proposed to introduce an overstay charge of £30 on all electric vehicle charging infrastructure meter types. These charges would in introduced from April 2023. Charger Proposed Renfrewshire Tariff Proposed Overstay Fee (10mins grace period) 7KW £0.36 £30 22KW £0.36 £30 50KW £0.50 £30 3.5 A Traffic Regulation Order to be prepared in relation to the issue of overstaying for implementation later in 2023. 4. Roads Related Fees & Charges 4.1 There are 3 roads related services that the Council currently offers at no cost, but the Council incurs costs in delivering this road related services. To allow these services to still be provided it is proposed to introduce charges to cover the cost of delivering these discretionary services. The proposed charges would be implemented from the start of April 2023: • Marking an H-bar line outside a private property – these advisory markings are regularly requested to assist with private parking issues at residential areas. Where the Council considers there is merit in this approach, the
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3 resident will be required to pay a proposed fee of £250. This fee is reflective of the typical cost the Council presently pays a contractor to carry out these works and will require to recover the costs for this work moving forward. • Opening of the Bascule Bridge – The Council incurs costs associated with specialist structural engineering support as well as traffic management arrangements to open the bridge. The proposed fee will be £4,000 per opening, this is reflective of the typical costs the Council presently incurs. The Council is also exploring investment in lighting the waterway so that night time openings could be carried out later in the financial year. • Removal of Illegal Signage – It is proposed that a fee of £100 is introduced to remove illegal signage which is placed on the Council’s road network without permission, assuming that the owner can be identified. Where the sign is advertising a business, it will be assumed that the business owner is accountable for the signage being in place and will be liable to pay the fee. The fee is reflective of the typical cost the Council incurs to investigate, remove and dispose of the signage. Implications of the Report 1. Financial – The proposals will allow the Council to recover the costs for providing the services outlined above. 2. HR & Organisational Development – None 3. Community & Council Planning Our Renfrewshire is thriving / Reshaping our place, our economy and our future - the service is actively involved in planning further enhancements to infrastructure to support and facilitate economic growth. Creating a sustainable Renfrewshire for all to enjoy - Reducing carbon emissions, electric and low emission vehicles within the Council fleet and supporting further enhancements to EV infrastructure. 4. Legal – None 5. Property/Assets – The Council’s roads infrastructure is maintained and enhanced. 6. Information Technology – None 7. Equality & Human Rights - The recommendations contained within this report have been assessed in relation to their impact on equalities and human rights. No negative impacts on equality groups or potential for infringement of individuals’ human rights have been identified arising from the recommendations contained in the report. If required following implementation, the actual impact of the recommendations and the
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4 mitigating actions will be reviewed and monitored, and the results of the assessment will be published on the Council’s website 8. Health & Safety – None 9. Procurement – None 10. Risk – None. 11. Privacy Impact – None 12. CoSLA Policy Position – None 13. Climate Risk – The Council continues to explore opportunities to secure external funding to deliver sustainable, green infrastructure projects. List of Background Papers: none Author: Gordon McNeil, Director of Environment & Infrastructure e-mail: gordon.mcneil@renfrewshire.gov.uk