New charge point to support disabled electric vehicle owners
A new project will soon trial an electric vehicle (EV) charge point, designed to be accessible for disabled people in Brighton & Hove.
Working with the city’s electric vehicle charging operator EB Charging, and Disabled Motoring UK, two accessible EV charging bays will be installed at Rottingdean Marine Cliffs Car Park.
This will give owners access to a Fast Charger which can deliver a full charge in as little as four hours and will be installed in the coming weeks.
Following meetings with two local disability groups, Possability People and BADGE, we will be adding two standard disabled parking bays to ensure we’re not removing any parking for non-EV drivers.
EB Charging have been building and developing software to enable users to pre-book an EV charging bay, through the EB Go! app. This includes an option to request assistance should users need support using the charger.
Get involved
During the trial, we’ll be asking for feedback from users on things like the height and width of the bays and the use of a new advanced EV charging bay booking system.
We are now looking for EV users with a blue badge, to trial new the infrastructure and booking system and take part in a survey so that we can better understand how we can develop this project further.
If you would like to take part between 14 February and 31 of March, please contact parkingprojects@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
Accessible travel for everyone in the city
Co-Chair of the Environment, Transport and Sustainability committee Steve Davis said: “This is a great project and I look forward to seeing the new bays being used and learning about what more we can do to support disabled people who own an electric vehicle”.
“We know that one of the things that will prevent those who need a car from choosing an electric vehicle is concerns about infrastructure. This, I’m sure, is heightened for disabled people”.
“We want Brighton & Hove to be a city accessible for everyone and projects like this mean we can continue to innovate and work towards our goal of becoming a carbon neutral city by 2030”.
Alex Calnan, CEO of EB Charging added: “It’s great to be part of this important project which will help us make sure that electric vehicles and our charging network are fully accessible to all drivers.
“We believe it will deliver fresh insights that we’ll be able to roll out across the region and beyond.”
Leading the way
Graham Footer, Chief Executive of Disabled Motoring UK said: “Accessible charging is an important part of the EV infrastructure roll out which until now has mainly been forgotten.
It is to the credit of EB Charging and Brighton & Hove City Council that they are leading the way with this innovative project, which Disabled Motoring UK is proud to be part of”.
Background
The project called ‘Shift!’ follows a successful government funding bid with EB Charging Ltd. It means that just over £250,000 of Innovate UK funding will be used to pay for the project.
Across the city, we have already installed more than 200 lamppost chargers, as well as fast and rapid chargers.
Find out more about electric vehicle charging in Brighton & Hove.
