EV drivers to get £148,000 worth of charging for FREE because council can’t work out how to make people pay for it
EV drivers are effectively receiving £148,000 for free as one local council can’t work out how to make them pay.
The local authority is spending the whopping sum to provide charging points despite having declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
Woking Borough Council is currently grappling with a debt of nearly £2.6 billion but is still shelling out to cover charging fees.
The issue is reportedly due to the fact that the out-of-date IT systems that operate the chargers are unable to force electric car owners to pay up.
This means that the council is having to cover the operating costs while drivers get to fill up for free.
Residents of the Surrey town have now called for the chargers to be switched off until the problem is resolved.
Lib Dem councillor Leslie Rice told Surrey Live: “Somebody is getting free charging.
“This has come out in a meeting. We talk about transparency and good management practices and we’ve turned over a new leaf, this doesn’t look like it.
“It does not reflect well on council officers, this should be disclosed and it shouldn’t be dragged out this way in the meeting.”
At the meeting in question, council officers admitted that the “back office systems that support the EV charging system are not in place.”
However, locals have been further enraged by the fact that the overspend has been revealed just days after the chief executive of the town’s community transport service warned of “dark days” ahead.
The service is set to suffer from the £11 million of cuts the council is set to make to its budget.
According to Surrey Live’s report, the £148,000 being spent on EV charging would be “about the same it would cost to save” the door-to-door bus service.
Conservative councillor Kevin Davis added: “This is just a shocking example, and it’s been dragged out by accident, and now we have to come up with a solution.
“We should be looking at stopping people getting free electricity.”
Woking Borough Council has been contacted for comment.
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