If you support the idea of electric cars, this is one in from the council today is for you. Ed
The Isle of Wight Council, is seeking local businesses to join in a bid for Government funding to provide charging points for electric vehicles.
Earlier this year, a local consortium known as HI-SPEED (Hampshire, IW, Southampton and Portsmouth Electric Economy Drive) submitted an expression of interest to the Government for funding and has since been invited to submit a full application. The IW Council along with partners in Hampshire has joined the bid which centres around three themes: Greening the Fleets, Greening Businesses and Eco-Tourism and Leisure.
Greening the Fleets is about providing employers with large vehicle fleets, such as taxi and car hire companies with discounted charging points. Greening Businesses is about helping smaller businesses install charging points in their car parks for both staff and customer use and Eco-Tourism and Leisure is about installing charging points at popular visitor attractions, as well as hotels and leisure centres.
Plugged-In-Places help with subsidies
If the bid is successful, Plugged-In-Places will help local businesses by subsidising the cost of installing charging points on the Isle of Wight and help promote the use of electric vehicles.
Cllr George Brown, Isle of Wight Council Cabinet Member for the Economy, Tourism, Leisure, Planning and Property, said: “There are more electric cars being mass produced and the Government continues to offer subsidies to individuals and companies through its Plugged-In car grant, so now is a good time to consider providing charging points.
“If there is sufficient interest on the Island and across the Solent in Portsmouth and Southampton we stand a very good chance of securing funding which will heavily subsidise the cost of installing such charging points.”
Any organisation interested in finding out more about installing electric vehicle charging points or joining the HI-SPEED bid should complete the short online survey.
Image: Wryonedwards under CC BY-ND 2.0
