Skipton Town Council has issued a “strong objection” to plans for three electric vehicle charge points on Skipton High Street.
The plans were lodged last month by national firm Osprey Charging Network which has installed the technology at 230 sites across the country.
The company has already installed several charge points in Skipton’s main car park on behalf of the now-abolished Craven District Council.
It proposes to build the charging points at the bottom of the High Street using three current parking spaces close to the British Heart Foundation charity shop and the junction with Newmarket Street.
But the town council in Skipton has argued the proposed charge points would be on the public highway, so it should not be allowed to be used for any planning applications.
Its objection letter submitted last week says the application “totally contradicts” the status of public highway as well as Skipton Town Council’s franchise to the market area.
The council runs a market on the high street every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
The letter adds: “This area is used for enforced parking on non-market and on market days is covered by market byelaws and held in franchise by Skipton Town Council.
“This does not allow this area to be used for planning purposes and a strong objection is lodged for this application and consent should not be granted for permanent frontage owned infrastructure on the setts.”
The UK government plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.
The Craven district currently has 89 charge points per 100,000 people, which puts it in the top 20 per cent of areas in the country for EV charging infrastructure according to government data.
Green Party councillor for the Aire Valley division, Andy Brown, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that installing EV charging points in tourist locations can help boost visitor numbers. He said:
“There is a real shortage of good quality reasonably priced charging points available in tourist destinations. As someone who regularly drives an all electric vehicle I can confirm that it makes a difference when you are considering where to go and hotels that provide one are getting my business whereas those that don’t aren’t.
“On street chargers are regularly over priced. It costs me less that £8 for the equivalent charge to a full tank of petrol when I charge at home. Charging at a public point is often the same price as petrol.”
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