It was the end of October 2021 that News OnTheWight first asked Isle of Wight council (IWC) when the ten new on-street Electric Vehicle Charging Points (EVCP) would ‘go live’.
Drivers of EVs had been getting in touch with News OnTheWight for sometime, frustrated by the lack of high-speed EVCPs on the Island. This included owners of holidays lets receiving annoyed feedback from visitors.
The council had originally received £67,500 from the Government before November 2020 to start to bring EV charging up to a serviceable level on the Island.
First they said November 2021
After asking when the new EVCPs would go live, an Isle of Wight spokesperson told us,
“We aim to have the charge points working by the end of November 2021.”
The end of November came and went and the frustration of EV users grew, as the on-street charging points were still not live.
Then it was the New Year
News OnTheWight attempted to get answers from the council again, twice in December, and was told,
“It is taking longer than anticipated to get everything sorted out so it’ll be sometime in the New Year before they’re working.”
No response
The New Year came and went and still no sign of the EV charging points going live, so News OnTheWight asked again. This time there was zero response.
Three months later, having seen that the EV charging points were still not live, we chased again.
“Hope to have”
Only recently did we get a reply from IWC. Their position now is that they, “hope to have them operational during June 2022,” some seven months since the original date.
No reason was given for the delay.
Frustration grows
Meanwhile, residents who use EVs and don’t have the luxury of somewhere off-road to charge their cars, and visitors to the Island who drive EVs and need to charge when they are here, tell News OnTheWight they’re becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of high-speed charging points.
Charge via lamp posts
Over in Portsmouth in 2019, the city council was in line for a national award for their innovative electric car charging points. Their approach was to provide residential electric vehicle charge points using existing lampposts, as well as new bollards.
News OnTheWight asked the Isle of Wight council in November 2020 what action had IWC taken to implement EV charging in street lampposts.
They replied,
“We have investigated various options but have no plans at present to install lamppost charging points.”
Locations and power rating of EVC points
The council said there would be ten on-street charging points and 27 charging sockets in council car parks.
You can read details of their planned locations and power ratings.
Image: Ernest Ojeh under CC BY 2.0
