Portsmouth's council is one of only five in the country to take up electric car cash offer

PORTSMOUTH is one of only five councils in the country that has applied to the government for cash to install electric car charging points.
An electric charging stationAn electric charging station
An electric charging station

The Department for Transport has said that the lack of councils taking advantage of a £4.5m fund for thousands of electric car charge points is ‘extremely disappointing’ – but Portsmouth is one of only a handful to have applied.

Since 2016 authorities have been able to apply for cash to cover 75 per cent of the cost of buying and installing on-street charge points.

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Councils are expected to make up the rest of the money through public and private sources.

A DfT spokeswoman said: ‘The take-up more than a year later has been extremely disappointing, meaning people up and down the country are being denied the opportunity to take advantage of the technology.’

Only drivers living in Portsmouth, Kensington and Chelsea, Cambridge, Luton and Kettering have benefited.

The News reported in July that the city council was to test points in Clarence Esplanade, Southsea; Isambard Brunel multi-storey car park in the city centre and at The Harbour car park in Portsea for two years.

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Ministers Jesse Norman and Claire Perry have written to local authority bosses to remind them about the scheme and highlight the benefits of electric cars.

Mr Norman said: ‘Millions of homes in the UK do not have off-street parking, so this funding is important to help councils ensure all their residents can take advantage of this revolution.’