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In response to the declaration of a climate emergency in 2019, Sheffield City Council has proposed a new public electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure.

The council has announced that it plans to commission third-party providers to deliver public electric vehicle charging infrastructure under 20-year contracts that will be awarded up to £15m of public funds.

At a meeting of the Transport, Regeneration and Climate Policy committee on March 16, Chancellor Andrew Sangar said: “We need to be at the point where half the city is driving electric vehicles and we are not at that point. This report takes us to the next step, but we are not there yet. We welcome the progress and the large amount of work the officers are doing, but there is still more to do.”

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The scheme aims to provide charging infrastructure for electric vehicles through funding for the Clean Air Zone, the government street residential charging point scheme and local electric vehicle infrastructure. He hopes the plans will make Sheffield a carbon neutral city by 2030.

According to the government, by 2030, 300,000 public charging points will be needed in the UK for the projected 30 million electric vehicles on the roads. Sheffield currently has just 28.3 charging points per 100,000 inhabitants, almost half the UK average of 52 per 100,000.

Jenny Wood, Sheffield City Council Lead Transport Planner, said: “In January 2023 there were 157 public charging points in Sheffield, which is well below the UK average and a catalytic increase is needed to support the transition to electric vehicles”.

The council has declared a plan to bid for future funds to support the deployment, prioritizing the areas with the highest demand. In Sheffield, the council currently has a network of 27 raid EV chargers with a further 48 individual chargers installed between 2022 and 2023 funded by Get Britain Building through the South Yorkshire Mayor’s Combined Authority.

Unless additional funding is secured on top of the £1.16m available for the development of electric vehicle charging points in Sheffield and Rotherham at the end of the current contracts, which is anticipated to be around 2027 and 2028, the Chargers may become redundant and need to be retired, resulting in an additional cost burden for the council.

Therefore, the council is looking for external providers to take over the existing infrastructure once the current contracts are up.

The council has suggested that air pollution contributes to 500 deaths a year in Sheffield from stroke, lung cancer and other life-threatening diseases, caused mainly by diesel vehicles.

Along with this proposal, the Council recently implemented a ‘Category C’ Clean Air Zone in February, in which commercial vehicles that do not meet a minimum emission standard are charged fees between £10 for smaller vehicles and up to £50. for the largest such as buses and heavy vehicles.

The council hopes the move will encourage the use of electric vehicles and help reduce the city’s carbon footprint.

In addition to the existing electric vehicle charging points, these will be installed in April.

• Albert Road Car Park, S2 4HT
• Broomspring Lane Car Park, S10 2FB
• Ebenezer Street Car Park, S3 8SR
• Fitzwilliam Street Car Park, S3 7SG
• Lancing Road car park, S2 4EU
• Shipton Street car park, S6 3EB
• Spooner Road Car Park, S10 5BL
• Stewart Road Car Park, S11 8XT
• Trinity Street Car Park, S3 7AL
• Windrush Way Car Park, S3 8JU

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