Concern raised over council's provision for electric charging
Stafford Borough Council is publishing its annual carbon footprint as part of action to tackle climate change – but concerns have been raised about the provision of electric vehicle charging points.
It was one of several authorities in Staffordshire to declare a climate emergency four years ago and it is now working towards becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
The council was ranked in the top three of local authorities in the West Midlands for its work to tackle climate change in 2022. A new cabinet post was also created at Stafford Borough Council last year to oversee climate change action and joined other local authorities on the Staffordshire Sustainability Board.
A carbon audit was carried out at the borough council last year. A cabinet report said: “Maloney Associates calculated the council’s 2021/22 carbon (equivalent) footprint to be 2,285 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is comparable with other Staffordshire councils for its geographical size.
“Sixty-two per cent is attributed to waste handling (commercial, recycling, transportation); 19 per cent to building energy – gas; 14 per cent to building energy – electricity; and 4 per cent to process fuel (red diesel and unleaded). These figures will be published on the council’s website and the exercise will be repeated annually to enable performance measurement and reporting.”
On Thursday cabinet members agreed to the publication of the carbon footprint for 2021/22, as well as including information on climate change implications in future council reports.
They also received details of county-wide strategies considered by the Staffordshire Sustainability Board over the past 12 months, including a document focusing on the installation of more electric vehicle charging points for public use.
Staffordshire needs 3,000 more electric vehicle charging points for public use in the next seven years, it was revealed at the start of this year. But the county had just 300 according to a report considered in January – and 92,000 households in Staffordshire don’t have off-street parking and live more than five minutes’ walk away from a public electric vehicle charging point.
Ant Reid, cabinet member for economic development and planning at Stafford Borough Council, said: “It looks like on-street electric vehicle charging is going to be quite weak in our county as a result of this strategy. It’s going to be difficult to implement and that’s going to put pressure on our residents.
“It’s not a matter within our remit as a borough council, so I don’t propose we change this. But I would like to stress that the borough council might want to have policies on providing EV (charging points) for residents off-street over the next five to 10 years.
“We need to look at some policies there because we’re responsible for off-street parking. Other authorities may well have a stronger policy for on-street parking than Staffordshire does and I regret that.”
Councillor Tony Pearce, cabinet member for climate change said: “It is problematic, as the report sets out, to install on-street parking at the moment because things might technologically change. It is an area that is changing quite rapidly – I personally hope it will.
“But there is due to be a meeting at county level involving districts. I hope members, if they’re able to, will take part and discuss what potential there is in Stafford Borough for installing additional EV charging points.”
Staffordshire Sustainability Board aims to support collaborative working so that each authority work towards their climate change goals. Its first public meeting was held in March and on Thursday borough council cabinet members were given an update on the board’s work.
Councillor Pearce said: “I was a little surprised our involvement in the board hadn’t been brought to the council previously. This has been meeting for over 12 months and we have been represented on it, but I suppose better late than never.
“We are, I hope, going to agree we support the work of this organisation. Every district council – and indeed Stoke City Council – is included along with the county council.
“The board has two employees, employed by the county council, and they are jointly funded by the county and the districts. One is employed to look at waste reduction and management and the other is employed to look at climate change issues across the county and make recommendations.”
