A Call to boost electric vehicle charging in York has sparked a row.
Liberal Democrat councillor Christian Vassie said in terraced streets, residents were left relying on costly public charging points and they should get help to install one at home.
Green activist, Denise Craghill, said recent heatwaves showed climate change was already here, underlining the need to help people switch to electric vehicles.
Council Labour transport spokesperson, Cllr Kate Ravilious, said the solution may involve a combination of private and public charging options and it made no sense to be restrictive.
It comes as councillors backed a call to review the options available for electric vehicle charging in the city.
The motion, tabled by Cllr Vassie and passed with Labour amendments, commits the council to explore charging options including pavement channels, lampposts and gullies where possible in York.
It would also see streets identified for potential public charging trial schemes.
Council officials are also set to lobby the Government to introduce a public charging tariff equivalent to the cost of doing so at home.
The council’s electric vehicle strategy is also set to be reviewed in light of Government support to cover 75 per cent of the costs of installing home chargers, up to £500.
People who own flats or rent any other type of home are eligible for the grants, provided they have dedicated on-street parking.
Grants are also available for people who rent or own any type of property if they only have on-street parking.
It also comes as York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority received £250,000 to fund pavement channels, with cash shared between the region’s two councils.
City of York Council officials have carried out assessments which found a significant proportion of terraced homes would not be able to install cross-pavement chargers.
The assessment found those properties faced significant challenges due to fronting directly onto the pavement.
Around a quarter of York households, roughly 90,000, do not have access to a car. It compares to electric vehicle ownership rates of 6 per cent nationally, according to council estimates.
Liberal Democrats claimed up to a quarter of York’s public charging points were currently not working.
Chargers currently not working are set to be reinstated by current operator BP Pulse, with a contract tendered to run the network after the firm announced it was pulling out.
A total of 30 chargers at the Monks Cross Hyperhub were taken offline when a security risk was identified.
They are also set to be reinstated once a new operator is found, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands.
But Cllr Vassie said it nevertheless left people reliant on public charging points who lacked access to infrastructure at home were left paying more.
The Wheldrake ward councillor said: “This should be a no brainer, I charge my electric car for around £4 at home and travel up to 230 miles.
“Councils across the country have shown there are practical ways to make cross-pavement charging work, such as charger sharing apps.
“We all want to cut emissions from transport, but forcing people to keep buying petrol and diesel cars because they cannot access affordable charging simply isn’t good enough.”
York Green Party Vice Chair Ms Craghill said promises to explore and review charging options amounted to foot-dragging.
She told councillors on Thursday, July 16: “We are now living with climate change, it isn’t in the future, it’s now and we have to act quickly.
“Switching to electric vehicles certainly won’t be the only solution but it is an important one now and one that many York residents want to be a part of.
“But they are currently being held back by lack of viable charging options.”
Cllr Ravilious said the Liberal Democrat’s motion would leave the council open to unquantifiable financial costs which the Labour administration was not prepared to do.
The executive member said: “The Liberal Democrats and Greens approved an EV Charging Strategy in 2020 that didn’t allow cross-pavement charging due to physical constraints that prevent installation on 80 per cent of York’s terraced streets, plus legal and technical issues, many of which still exist.
“Our amendment initiated a review of a range of private and commercially available public on-street charging technologies, the solution may be a combination of these so it makes no sense to restrict the public’s EV charging options as the Liberal Democrats propose.”
