16 August 2010
The Future Transport Systems team spent several months working to prepare three Expressions of Interest (EoI) for Plugged in Places. All three submissions have now moved successfully to the next round with final bids to be submitted on October 29th.
In developing the bids, FTS has worked hard to expand the momentum of interest and involvement across the regions to prepare the ground for effective and well co-ordinated delivery.
The first EoI was led by Sheffield City Council, covers Sheffield City Region and was submitted in the first round on January 31st.
This bid focussed on developing a charging network expanding from Sheffield City, linking with the existing park and ride schemes and gradually expanding to cover the whole of the City Region. The bid received very positive feedback from OLEV but discussions concluded in a decision to try and build a bid to cover the whole of Yorkshire & Humber.
With this in mind, Yorkshire Forward spin-out company, CO2 Sense, commissioned Future Transport Systems to prepare an EoI for the remaining parts of the Region so that once both bids successfully passed this stage they could be combined to create a single bid covering the whole of Yorkshire and Humber.
Interest across the Region was significant with organisations in North and North East Lincolnshire also signing up.
The bid focuses on exploring the issues of supporting electric vehicles within urban conurbations as well as supporting the inter-connection of the North East with the North West and Midlands.
Linking with many major public and private sector organisations the final bid will include approximately 1000 charge points spread across public, private and domestic sites.
The third EoI was commissioned by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) and covers the East of England. Here FTS have been developing the extensive work already completed by EEDA, including their Transport and Carbon Study (TRACS) utilising the Regional Transport Model, which concluded that electric vehicles should be a key component of the region’s low carbon strategy. The East of England is a key location, bordering both Milton Keynes and London, where recharging networks are already being developed.
The Plugged in Places project group are working with the private sector to capitalise on the strong existing automotive, low carbon and advanced manufacturing companies within the region, as well as national and international companies headquartered in the East of England. The bid also has strong support from the public sector, with sustainable transport integration a key priority and regional commitments developing policy to incentivise the uptake of electric cars being discussed.
The successful second round Plugged in Places bids will join round one winners Transport for London, Milton Keynes and the North East in developing an integrated recharging network across the UK.