Sparks fly in Staffordshire electric cars spending row

There are 10 ports in the county while there are just 4,000 electric cars registered in the UK.

A report published this month revealed expenditure on the technology by local authorities – and found many ports were not being used. One in six councils across the country was shown to have at least one point which has not been used at all in the past year.

The TaxPayers' Alliance branded the £7.2m expenditure as a 'very expensive vanity project'.

An extra £37m to offset the cost of installing equipment for electric car charging points was announced this year by the Local Government Association. It hopes plug-in points will be created at hospitals and other public buildings. The AA has defended the charging points and said 'these things take time'.

Mark Winnington, cabinet member for economy and infrastructure at Staffordshire County Council, defended the charging stations. He said: "We currently have 10 charging ports in the county which are located in Stafford.

"The ports have been funded by central government and at no cost to local taxpayers. The ports have only been introduced in the last few weeks and we have located them in busy parts of the town including by the train station and with large employers, so more people can use them.

"We want to be able to give people more choice in accessing more cost-effective and environmentally friendly ways of getting around. Having more charging ports will help to encourage more people to use electric cars."

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers are clearly being fleeced to fund what is little more than an attempt by the councils involved to brandish their green credentials.

"When only around 4,000 of the 34.6 million vehicles on the road are electric cars, this amounts to a very expensive vanity project."

Figures from the DVLA show there are around 4,100 electric cars being used on roads across the country.

Councils in Wolverhampton and Dudley currently have no electric car charging stations but chiefs said they were looking at introducing some in the next couple of years.

AA president Edmund King said: "I don't think these charging points are a waste of time; you have to persevere with new technology. We do need a mix of cars in the UK. Most two-car households could get by with an electric car. We need to change attitudes."

Transport minister Norman Baker said: "You can't expect to put out charge points and then see people queuing at them the next day.

"The two things run in parallel. There's no point in buying a car if drivers can't find a charge point.

"No one would have bought DVDs if they didn't have a DVD player.

"We're in it for the long game here. We're trying to transfer the nature of the car from diesel and petrol to hydrogen cell and electric based."