West Suffolk Council has installed six more town centre electric vehicle (EV) charging points in Bury St Edmunds, available for the public to use.

The fast EV points are in the free Olding Road car park which serves West Suffolk House, and will be shared with staff. This is in addition to the deal the council has signed to install around 100 new slow, fast and rapid public (EV) points on council owned land this year.

West Suffolk Council is working closely with communities and partners to help the district become carbon net zero by 2030. Figures published in January 2023 by the Department for Transport data show that West Suffolk is already in the top 20 per cent of councils nationally for public charging points for EVs, both in total number of devices, and for devices per 100,000 population.

Cllr Gerald Kelly, Cabinet member for Governance and Regulatory said,

‘We are helping to make a real step change in availability of EV charging points. More motorists are changing away from fossil fuel, improving air quality and encouraging the move to renewable energy. In fact the energy motorists will be supplied, at competitive rates, is from the company that buys the energy we generate at our council-owned solar farm. I welcome collaboration with communities to identify council owned space that could be upgraded to provide charging as well as parking. In December we published a position statement on EV charging point infrastructure and to see this being delivered so quickly shows the pace we are working at to be carbon net zero by 2030.

The points deliver 7kW via a standard type 2 connector, which equates to approximately 25 miles of range per hour (depending on vehicle and driving style) and are best to use when parked for longer periods, for example whilst working or shopping. The points are charged at 41p/kWh

Olding Road car park has 373 spaces and is walking distance of local services and the town centre. It is available for free public use