Approval for £14.5m electric car charging scheme

A £14.5m plan to install thousands of electric vehicle charging points across the West Midlands has been approved, despite concerns from some local leaders.

The West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) investment board agreed to move forward with the scheme, which aims to deliver 9,500 charging points.

It will also give delegated authority to senior officers to approve the business case and negotiate contracts with suppliers.

However, members raised concerns over what they described as a lack of political input.

Jim O'Boyle, cabinet member for jobs, regeneration and climate change at Coventry City Council, voted against giving power to officers.

He said Coventry had already installed more than 2,500 on-street charge points by working directly with the Department for Transport, without "top slicing one single penny in order to pay people to come up with agreements and legal contracts that are already in place".

"Around 2% works out at around £300,000," he said. "That's hundreds of thousands of pounds going out directly in order to support staff in this organisation and I don't think that's right.

"I'm not accepting any of these recommendations which gives further power to combined authority officers who are not accountable to the public to go away and spend £300,000 to recruit people to hold up projects. That's not acceptable."

The leader of Walsall Council, Mike Bird, said that instead of charging points on streets, as proposed in this scheme, the WMCA should have looked at charging stations.

"The success of electrification in Coventry is something we should have traded upon and found out what problems they've encountered and how they have overcome them," he said.

Of proposals in Walsall, he said: "The outcry from residents was, 'oh I don't want that outside my door', because it means sometimes a car is parked outside their door all day."

Bird raised concerns about accountability: "Elected members should be involved in looking at that business case.

"We get held accountable for the failures and the successes of local authorities and the combined authority when we haven't been involved in the decision making until this very late stage."

Andrew Page, of Transport for West Midlands, said he could not comment on governance arrangements.

He said staff would be needed to manage accounts and ensure local authorities receive revenue generated by the charging points.

A report to the board said the funds must "primarily benefit residents without off-street parking", while allowing provision for groups like tourists, commuters, taxi drivers and commercial vehicle operators.

It said the grant was designed to deliver a "step-change" in the rollout of "primarily low-power, on-street" electric vehicle charging infrastructure across England and to accelerate investment in the local charging sector.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.

Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.