Chichester could still sign up to county-wide electric vehicle strategy

The strategy was developed after the government announced the sale of petrol and diesel cars would be banned from 2040 – and possibly as early as 2032.

With a national target to be carbon neutral by 2050 already set, the need for enough infrastructure to cope with this next generation of vehicles became something of a priority.

Last year, the county council was told that 7,300 more charging points would be needed in West Sussex by 2030 to cater for the 161,000 electric vehicles expected to have taken to the roads.

Every district and borough council in the county got on board with the strategy, except for Chichester – though the city did unveil plans for 18 charging points to be installed in some of its car parks.

At a meeting of the full council,  Jonathan Brown (Lib Dem, Southbourne) praised the plans but urged the council to support the network strategy.

Penny Plant, cabinet member for environment, said: “We are getting the details of the contract from West Sussex. It’s actually looking quite a bit more complicated than it first appears, basically to do with land ownership.

“We’re looking at it and we’re very much in favour of it but we just need to be careful what we’re doing.”

Andrew Frost, head of planning, said officers were talking to the county council to ‘try to understand the process involved and find out what the contract would require’.

He added: “We’re still at the information gathering stage – there are a number of questions which remain outstanding – but there will be a report to cabinet as soon as possible.”

In August, the county council started the search for a supplier to help plan, fund, install, market and operate the network.

A spokesman said the council expected to have the supplier in place by 2021.

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