Councillors on the community services scrutiny committee are likely to approve proposals that could see at least one charging point introduced in every residential street in Wandsworth.
And taking it a step further, town hall officials will also be tasked with exploring the cost and logistics involved in providing an electric vehicle charging plug in every lamppost in residential streets.
Wandsworth currently has 35 charging points in 11 locations across the borough – and there are existing plans to install another 50 in 20 further locations by the turn of the year.
This is already helping to make owning and running an electric car a much more attractive and viable option for many Wandsworth residents.
But with growing concerns over air quality coupled with the recent Government announcement that petrol and diesel vehicles will no longer be offered for sale from 2040 onwards and banned from the roads by 2050, the council’s transport and environment spokesman says now is the time to act to embrace e-motoring.
Cllr Jonathan Cook said he hopes Wandsworth becomes one of the UK’s leading supporters of e-motoring.
He added: “The future of motoring is electric. The Government has announced that in 20 years time petrol and diesel vehicles will no longer be sold in the UK. This means that councils need to start planning ahead now to make sure we deliver the infrastructure to keep people moving and give people as much choice as possible. Nowhere is this more relevant than here in inner London where air quality is a real concern.
“Providing as many charging points as possible is the key. We need to made the best use of existing infrastructure and make it as easy and as convenient as we can so that people are encouraged to switch to electric. But we don’t want to wait 20 years. We want to support this revolution now so that we can begin to cut harmful emissions, reduce pollution and improve the quality of the air we breathe.
“We’ve already done a lot to tackle pollution in Wandsworth but we want to do more by supporting this new globally important technology and delivering the improvements in air quality that are so badly needed.”
Councillor Cook added he was keen to hear the views of the borough’s residents. “This is a conversation that all local authorities will need to have with their local communities, particularly in cities. We want to be at the forefront of those discussions,” he said.
And he insisted that delivering significant numbers of new charging points would be a major boost to the Mayor of London’s air quality strategy.
He concluded: “This is a bold policy initiative we hope the Mayor will support. He has just introduced a T-Charge for older vehicles entering the congestion zone and has also just announced proposals to extend the ULEZ zone to cover all areas of London within the North and South Circular Roads in 2019.
“Helping to fund a dramatic and radical advance in e-motoring infrastructure is precisely the sort of project that the Mayor could support with some of the extra revenue he is now beginning to receive from these new charges.
“Our plan would help him achieve his goal of curbing air pollution and encourage some of the more heavily polluting vehicles off the roads once and for all.”
Councillors on the scrutiny committee are expected to back a recommendation that instructs the Director of Environment and Community Services to “develop this emerging and ambitious strategy yet further, by examining the technical and financial potential to deliver a network of such significant scale and coverage that it might cover all residential streets of the borough and would very likely positively influence behaviour change in terms of resident and business decisions on vehicle ownership.”
The committee will meet to discuss the initiative on Wednesday, November 15.