THE first council electric car charging points have been installed at Skipton’s High Street Car Park as part of Craven District Council’s commitment to tackling climate change.

The council has joined forces with electric charging point company, Engenie, for the pilot project and will receive 15 per cent of the profits.

The £70,000 cost of equipment and installation has been met by Engenie, which is in the process of rolling out a network of rapid charge points across the country, located at strategically important locations .

Powered entirely by renewable energy, the two contactless 50kw chargers should deliver 80 miles of charge in around 30 minutes, depending on the car and battery.

They are compatible with all electric vehicles on the road, with two rapid (DC) connectors and a slower connection (AC) socket on the side for those wishing to stay a bit longer at the car park.

The chargers are simple to use: they accept normal contactless bank cards and don’t require any sort of membership or account. There is no need to purchase a ticket whilst charging a vehicle, however there is a maximum stay of an hour.

Councillor Carl Lis, Craven District Council’s lead member for greener Craven said: “We know there is a growing need for electric vehicle charging points as this mode of transport is becoming more popular and demand is likely to increase in the future.

“I’m delighted that in partnership with Engenie we have been able to install these charging points in the council’s High Street car park as part of our climate change strategy.”

Ian Johnston, Engenie’s chief executive, said, “Engenie are delighted to be providing Craven District Council’s residents, businesses and visitors with user-friendly rapid chargepoints to keep them on the go. We congratulate the council on taking this positive action following their declaration of a climate emergency last year.

“By enabling low-emission vehicles, these two new chargers will avoid over 3.5 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere (equivalent to planting over 20,000 trees) and contribute to cleaner air locally by avoiding 2.7 tonnes of polluting NO2.”

The charging points are located in bays opposite the public conveniences. Two new disabled bays have been created to make up for the loss of the two bays for the charging points.

Engenie’s network of over 130 chargers is UK-wide across town centre, retail and major road locations, driven by partnerships such as in Skipton with Craven District Council.