Agenda item

Amendment to London Councils Transport and Environment Committee Agreement

[Report of the Director of Housing, Regeneration and Planning. To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability]

 

This report is seeking Cabinet to approve the delegation of additional functions to the London Councils' Transport and Environment Committee Agreement (LCTEC Agreement). It would provide London Councils TEC with the authority to take on the operational management and strategic oversight of a London-wide residential electric vehicle charging point delivery partnership on behalf of London's local authorities, if required.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Sustainability introduced the report which sought approval for delegation of authority to London Councils Transport and Environment Committee to vary a committee agreement which would enable TEC [Transport and Environment Committee] to exercise further functions under section 16 of the London Local Authorities and Transport Act 2013. This would in turn enable London Councils to develop a new electric vehicle co-ordination function and to carry out the additional functions to support boroughs in delivering uptake of Electrical vehicles.

 

In agreeing this variation, the Council will be supporting a London wide approach to Electric Vehicle charging infrastructure. The aim of this variation was to allow London Councils to deliver a Management organisation for electric vehicle charging. This was currently not permitted under the existing terms of TEC, hence this variation and the Council’s agreement was needed. This new company had the potential to reduce costs for London Authorities, while creating a single point of contact for all electric vehicles charging needs. This could benefit the Council and residents and businesses. Once designed the Council can then decide to take up the offer to join this new company. This was also a positive step in delivering air quality objectives.

 

The following information was provided in response to questions from Cllr Barnes:

 

  • The Council would only sign up to the company, if it met the borough’s electric vehicle charging needs. The Cabinet Member was keen on uniformity and efficiency and having fast charging points for electrical vehicles in a place where they do not impede people’s progression the pavement.

 

  • The agreement to set up a company would include exploring the issues concerning the mode of EV charging in comparison to another, i.e. rapid charging or streetlamp charging. The company would likely consider these issues and hopefully put forward a consistent approach.

 

  • The Cabinet Member agreed to provide Cllr Barnes a written response to her question on Haringey expanding its EV installation guidance to include further use of roads for future modes of travel, so to include change of use parking bays into dockless bays or park lets so a future proof design and implementation guide that can change as needs arise.

 

 

RESOLVED

 

 

  1. To approve the delegation of authority to London Councils Transport and Environment Committee to exercise further functions under section 16 of the London Local Authorities and Transport Act 2013, to enable London Councils to develop a new electric vehicle co-ordination function and to carry out the additional functions to support boroughs in delivering uptake of EV’s as set out in paragraph 4.6 in the report and Appendices A and B.

 

  1. To delegate authority to the Director of Housing, Regeneration, and planning to sign any necessary documents to give effect to the variation of the London Council’s Transport and Environment Committee Governing Agreement dated 13 December 2001, as amended.

 

Reasons for decision

 

In 2016, the Go Ultra Low Cities Scheme (GULCS) funding bid submitted byte GLA, London Councils, and TfL proposed the delivery of London-wide infrastructure and a ‘management partnership.’ The role of the management partnership was to coordinate and support electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure delivery, and to manage and maintain the infrastructure in the longer term. Some of its original functions have been delivered through the GULCS programme, specifically the GULCS Senior Lead at London Councils and wider project team at Transport for London (TfL). However, this support will no longer continue when the funding for the GULCS Senior Lead role ends in March 2020.

 

It is recognised that there is a need for London Councils to continue to coordinate and support EV infrastructure delivery in London after March 2020. This is supported by the findings of the Mayor’s EV Infrastructure Taskforce, which has recommended that a new pan-London EV coordination function is created to facilitate and oversee charge point installation. London Councils has committed to take this recommendation forward.

 

A centralised approach would bring economies of scale, simplify the process for customers and operators and reduce the resource burden on local authorities, whilst allowing boroughs to retain control of the type, locations, and ownership of charge points. The delivery partnership would provide support to boroughs and undertake tasks delegated by the boroughs to the delivery partnership.

 

For London Councils Transport and Environment Committee (LC TEC) to take part in the development or management of a one stop shop coordination body, each of the 33 London local authorities participating in the TEC joint committee arrangements must agree additional functions and powers to the joint committee. This requires the TEC constitution (Governing Agreement, dated 13 December 2001 (as amended)) to be varied.

 

As set out in Appendix A (TEC Paper: EV coordination function final) and Appendix B (EV coordination function responsibilities), the proposed variation does not provide LC TEC with the power to act as a decision maker on behalf of the London local authorities and does not put any borough under any obligation to take part in any proposed activity in this area. It simply allows LC TEC to take on a limited, collaborative role in relation to electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The amendment wording sets out the types of actions that a function managed by LC TEC could undertake. The reason the amendment is worded in this way is to ensure that further amendments to allow some development of the role would not be needed. But decision making would still need to be agreed by TEC and every London local authority would need to agree to participate in any proposed activity.

 

The new functions proposed for London Councils TEC can be summarised as follows:

 

  • Act as a the key point of contact for London boroughs, the GLA, TfL, existing and new charge point operators, and other relevant stakeholders seeking information about charge point installation in London
  • Facilitate sharing of best practice and other relevant information amongst London boroughs and other relevant stakeholders
  • Collate and share information to encourage Londoners to switch to Evs
  • Liaise with TfL to provide procurement and contract management support to London boroughs to support delivery of EV charge points
  • Oversee delivery of GULCS programme to the end of 2020.
  • Secure and distribute funding to London boroughs for the delivery of on-street charging points.
  • Monitor and support data sharing between charge point operators, London boroughs, TfL and other relevant stakeholders
  • Analyse charge point usage data. Share and promote key findings with relevant stakeholders.
  • Collate and share locations of charge points delivered
  • Monitor customer experience and charging behaviour
  • Identify funding and partnership opportunities to continue the role of the coordination body from 2022

 

More details are set out in Appendix A (TEC Paper: EV coordination function final) and Appendix B (EV coordination function responsibilities).

 

Alternative options considered

 

Do nothing

 

Not agreeing to the LCTEC Agreement variation will impact London as a whole. Every London borough needs to agree to this delegation. So if Haringey Council did not agree, this would hinder other Councils’ ability to undertake this work in this manner. This will mean fragmented charging point delivery, and require more resource from local authorities (legal and procurement) to undertake this role. It will also impede progress on the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (2018), as increasing electric vehicle uptake is vital to improving air quality.

 

 

Supporting documents: