Members refuse to back Highland Council's electric vehicle charging plan
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The council had proposed significant price rises for use of its electrical vehicle (EV) charging points, in a bid to offset maintenance costs.
While the current tariff for journey chargers is 30p per kilowatt hour, the council suggested a steep increase to 86p.
This tariff is by far the most expensive in Scotland, and higher than private providers including BP.
However, members of the council's new climate change committee refused to back the plan.
Instead, a motion from Conservative councillor Patrick Logue won unanimous support.
Cllr Logue asked the committee to defer a decision on the “extortionate” charges.
Members want more information about the maintenance costs of the charging points, which will fall to Highland Council from next year.
Without that information, they say they can’t be expected to make any recommendation about a sustainable pricing plan.
Cllr Logue warned that if the council sets the prices too high, it could derail its own targets to transition to EV vehicles. An ironic start for a committee tasked with taking the Highlands to net zero.
The big problem facing Highland Council is the cost of maintaining its EV units.
Currently, Transport Scotland manages the ongoing repair and maintenance of the EV infrastructure. However, 20 of these units will become the council’s responsibility on December 1. The rest will follow in 2023.
This leaves the council with a decision to make. If it freezes the current 30p tariff, it will need to find an extra £227,000 to fund repair and maintenance – no small task for a council with a £40 million projected budget deficit.
This was the first option presented to the climate change committee.
Option 2 suggested increasing the tariff to 71p per kilowatt hour. This option would be cost neutral to the council.
However, officers recommended adopting option three – the highest rate of 86p – which would allow the council to reinvest in the network.
Climate committee chairman Karl Rosie moved the recommendation but did not find a seconder.
Instead, the committee voiced concern about the potential impact of the price hike.
Conservative councillor Patrick Logue said that as an EV driver himself, he was “absolutely astonished” at the proposals.
“This is not in line with other Scottish local authorities, this is by far the highest," he said.
"The highest council at the moment is East Lothian Council, charging 50p per kilowatt. What’s being proposed here, is just under 75 per cent higher. It’s higher than the vast majority of tariffs being charged in the private sector.”
Cllr Logue highlighted that even the lower tariff, option two, is a higher unit price than fossil fuel vehicles.
All this, he said, could halt the momentum of EV take-up, which he said is only 0.78 per cent in Highland currently.
“This is the first meeting of the climate change committee, and one of the first things we’re being asked to do is to triple the cost of one of the key drivers of de-carbonisation,” he said.
“Is that really the message we want to be sending out from this committee?”
Cllr Logue won the support of Green councillor Kate Willis, who ultimately seconded his motion to defer a decision.
Cllr Willis agreed with council bosses that they can’t run EV charging at a loss. However, she raised a chicken and egg dilemma – how can members agree a tariff when they don’t know the expected cost of repair and maintenance?
Climate change officers said they’re working on gathering that information now. However, if the council didn’t apply the new tariff from next month it would start incurring costs.
Cllr Sarah Atkin warned “putting it off will cost us”.
Nevertheless, members were not for budging and they unanimously supported Cllr Logue’s call to defer.
While the climate change committee does not have the final say on anything financial, it has asked the economy committee to hold off on applying the tariff hike.
For Highland EV users, the tariff remains at 30p – but it could shoot up in the not too distant future.
