Purpose

Consideration of a concession contract award to supply, install, manage and maintain electric vehicle chargepoints at no cost to the council.

Decision

RESOLVED That the Cabinet Member approves the attached Award Report for a 15-year concession contract to install, manage and maintain EV charge points.

That following the process set out in Part A of the Award Report, the contract is awarded to Bidder C as detailed in confidential Part B of the Award Report.

Reasons for the decision

The council currently provides 52 publicly available charging sockets, mainly in council-owned car parks. This new contract will provide 2,100 charging sockets in residential streets within the borough, to help meet the expected demand for charging from EV owners without private off-street parking.

The government Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) has provided £326,000  funding towards the overall costs of the BFC scheme to help attract a supplier.

The council does not have a funding stream to purchase and manage charge points at scale, or the necessary expertise to operate them. Therefore, a concession contract for this provision is considered the most appropriate solution and this approach is being adopted nationally by local authorities.

The winning bidder has estimated Bracknell Forest Council could receive up to £2million in revenue share over the period of the contract.

The contract award follows a competitive tender via open procurement to secure the most economically advantageous tender.

Alternative options considered

The alternative options considered are:

·       To purchase EV charging points and take the revenue from users to pay for their on-going maintenance – this is rejected as there is no budget available for the excessive up-front capital costs (2,100 sockets could cost in the region of £13million to purchase and install).

·       Not to provide EV charging points for residents – this was rejected as it would harm the ability to deliver the council’s net zero aims and the objectives of the Local Transport Plan.