Pressure mounts to get frequently out of order electric vehicle charger in Dunstable repaired

A “very high profile customer” is applying pressure to get an electric vehicle charger in Dunstable repaired.

During a report on the implementation of Central Bedfordshire Council’s Electric Vehicle Chargepoint Plan during last week’s (June 23) Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the debate moved to a specific location, Grove Park in Dunstable.

Councillor Eugene Ghent (Conservative, Dunstable Watling Ward) said: “It’s been out of order for a week now. It’s probably broken down four or five times since January.”

Stephen Mooring, head of sustainability, replied that there had been an issue with responsibility for the site as the company that installed it is no longer around.

“This has been a bit of an ongoing issue,” he said. “And it is something that we are persevering with and escalating with BP Pulse.”

Councillor Steven Dixon (Conservative, Stotfold and Langford Ward), the executive member for sustainability and transformation, said that some of the older charging sites do not have the current capacity to handle a more powerful charger.

“They are around two or three kVA and they need to go up to about seven plus,” he said.

Councillor Ghent asked if this site was at the bottom of the list.

Mr Mooring said because that charge point is so well used it is “on top of the list”.

Councillor Nigel Young (Conservative, Dunstable Watling Ward) said the charging points at Grove Park are “as bad as it gets”, with one type two charger and one three-pin plug.

“So I’m surprised that BP Pulse, and I’m glad to hear you may have it resolved, haven’t simply swapped that out for a seven kilowatt dual charge point to save us getting these endless breakdowns and endless complaints,” he said.

Mr Mooring said: “I think at the moment they would probably rather just send an engineer out once and do it once and for all, but I will raise that again with them.”

“With the utmost respect,” councillor Young said. “They’ve been three times Stephen, and this is a very high profile customer who’s now started making noises.

“So not good for us in Dunstable because we have quite a strong lobby asking us the question constantly ‘when will we put charge points in?’,” he said.

Councillor Dixon replied: “Stephen has explained quite clearly in simple words, it’s at the top of the list.

“Notwithstanding who councillor Young suggests the place this might be coming from, we’re doing all we can to get that particular one fixed as quickly as possible.

“It’s on the radar, it’s being dealt with as quickly as possible, it is not as simple as just going out and putting a new head on it.

“I can assure you that Stephen and the team are looking at it as a very high priority and if you want to you can take that back to that particular customer,” he said.

Councillor Young said he’d leave that to councillor Dixon

“I’m quite happy to go back to talk to him, ” councillor Dixon said.