An electric vehicle charging ‘hyper hub’ could be built near York city centre.
City of York Council is already building two ultra fast charging hubs – at Monks Cross and Poppleton Bar Park&Ride sites – but a third is planned for Union Terrace Car Park in Clarence Street.
Council transport boss Cllr Andy D’Agorne will be asked to give the project the go ahead at a meeting next week and a planning application can be submitted.
The third hyper hub was originally due to be built at York Hospital but issues with land ownership and routes to the site, transport bosses decided Union Terrace would be a better choice. It is close to the hospital and owned by the council.
Under the plans, about 15 car parking spaces would be converted into the charging area at the southern end of the car park. Six rapid chargers will be installed, with room for more to be added at a later date if needed.
The charging area would be separate to the main car park and open 24 hours a day.
£900K bill
The project is set to cost about £900,000 – with funding from North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership and council budgets – including a contribution from the council’s Duncombe Barracks development.
A solar panel canopy is not currently included in the project but the council is looking for £30,000 of funding for the panels.
“The City of York Network tariffs compare very favourably against commercial charging providers,” a council report into the plans says.
“We are also adopting a transparent tariff structure with no hidden fees, and no additional fees for contactless payments at rapid/ultra rapid [chargers]. There is no minimum spend and no transaction fee, so our tariff will be 20p or 25p regardless of the amount of charge received or the method of access.”
Work has already begun at the two Park&Ride hyper hub sites – with the Monks Cross project due to open as early as June 14 according to provisional timetables.
The Poppleton Bar site is due to be completed slightly later. It is currently being used as a Covid test centre but the construction area has been cleared for work to begin.
The proposals will be discussed at a transport meeting on Tuesday at 10am.