Northumberland County Council has passed a motion to add 36 public electric vehicle charging points at 26 locations, extending the network the authority already operates in the northeast of England.
The bulk of the new hardware will sit on land the council owns: 78 per cent of the points are to be installed on council property, while the remainder will be hosted on third-party land under licensing agreements. The county borders Scotland and combines a long coastline with sparsely populated rural areas, including Hadrian's Wall and Northumberland National Park, so the network serves visitor traffic as well as residents.
Funding for the infrastructure comes from just over £1 million in external money provided through the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. The council expects that support to carry the rollout through 2029. Charging revenue is not being treated as net income; it is directed to the running costs, management and maintenance of the units.
Installation and upkeep will be handled by the council's in-house EV team, keeping responsibility for the network inside the authority rather than with an external operator.
Richard Wearmouth, the cabinet member with responsibility for transport, welcomed the additional investment in charging provision and tied it to the county's geography, noting that Northumberland has one of the largest road networks in the country and that adequate facilities are needed for people to get around.
The charging announcement follows the entry into service of 14 BYD BD11 battery-electric buses in the region a few months earlier, another step in the county's move toward electric transport.