Plans to introduce electric charging points for vehicles in Tenby’s car parks have been welcomed by local councillors.

Correspondence from Pembrokeshire County Council’s street care manager Marc Owen came before members of Tenby Town Council at their meeting on Tuesday night explaining that ‘EV Charge points’ would soon be installed in some of the authority’s car parks across the county.

“We will be installing four EV charge points in car parks across Pembrokeshire, with the four bays dedicated to EV charging vehicles and will be time limited,” stated Mr. Owen.

“Whilst parking in the charge bay to charge there will still be a requirement to ‘Pay and Display’ whilst charges are in place in the car park.

“As you are aware there is a national push towards EV charging and as an authority we are rolling these out over the next few months, with the aim of going live by the end of March.

“There is an increasing number of EV charge vehicles being purchased and having charge facilities in our car parks will support the current push away from diesel and petrol vehicles.

“The EV points will be advertised through the web site and associated mobile apps and we envisage anyone in the area will then utilise the charge facilities, it could actually bring more people into the area if they know they can charge up,” he added.

Phase 1 of 16 ‘fast charge posts’ (32 sockets) will feature in eight car parks across the county, including the top floor of Tenby’s multi-storey facility.

Other car parks included are - Narberth’s town moor, and Pembroke Dock’s Gordon Street.

“We are currently reviewing a second phase to increase the number of charge posts across other car parks to include ‘Rapid Charge’ facilities. We want Pembrokeshire to be a great destination for EV drivers and tourists,” added Mr. Owen.

Clr. Laurence Blackhall welcomed the news: “This is excellent news, and I’m delighted to see it happening after Clr. Mike Evans first raised the matter around four years ago.

“I congratulate the county council, but we do need more, and need to see these facilities in all our car parks in Tenby, as the demand will increase dramatically over the next few years,” he continued.

Clr. Mike Evans recommended that the North Beach and Salterns car parks in Tenby be prioritised for the Phase 2 roll out of the charging points, as the town’s multi-storey facility was often full at busy times of the year.

“The charging points have got to be spread out across the county to allow for journeys across Pembrokeshire - and as time goes by there will be a lot more of them, but this is good news,” he said, with the Deputy Mayor. Clr. Mrs. Christine Brown agreeing that it was ‘brilliant’ news.

Clr. Mrs. Tish Rossiter said that she also believed that the Five Arches car park in Tenby was introducing electric vehicle charging points too.