Mayor James Palmer wants powers to get more electric vehicle charge points in the region

Cambridgeshire's mayor James Palmer is backing a call by London mayor Sadiq Khan to give metro mayors powers to deliver additional charging points for electric vehicles.

The powers could mean mayors can get more of the charge points installed at petrol stations, hotels, supermarkets and leisure centres.

The call follows an HSBC survey reporting the East is lagging behind much of the UK with only 172 publicly-funded charge points (33,994 people per charger), one of the least well served regions in the UK.

The South East has 572 charge points – 15,372 people per charger, the survey said.

Mayor Palmer is supporting amendments to the Automated & Electric Vehicles Bill, currently passing through the House of Lords. It would give him the power to require large fuel retailers and operators of hotels, leisure centres, supermarkets and large car parks to provide electric charging points.

He said: “The evidence says that the East is way behind most other areas of the UK when it comes to charging points and that needs to change.

“I believe that we, as metro mayors, who lead on transport strategy, are best placed to drive forward measures to clean up our air and assist central government in its desire to remove all new petrol and diesel cars from sale by 2040.”