A regional transport committee is being asked to support plans for the East Midlands mayoral authority to take a leading role in the future rollout and management of public electric vehicle charging points across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
A report to the East Midlands Combined County Authority’s Transport and Digital Connectivity Committee, which meets on Thursday, June 25 at Rushcliffe Arena, says the region risks falling behind other parts of England unless public charging infrastructure is expanded and better coordinated.
The committee is being asked to note progress on electric vehicle infrastructure, comment on future priorities for an EMCCA Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Strategy, and endorse recommendations for the EMCCA Board to formally approve the authority taking on the strategic lead role for the regional D2N2 publicly accessible charge point network.
Members are also being asked to endorse a recommendation for up to £1.3 million from the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Capability Fund to be used by EMCCA to build capacity within the organisation to support the coordination and delivery of the regional strategy and charge point programmes.
The report says the Government’s Zero Emission Vehicle mandate requires the phase-out of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, with all new car and van sales required to be zero emission by 2035. It says this means there is an accelerating need for more publicly accessible charging infrastructure.
According to the report, Department for Transport data from May 1, 2026, shows the East Midlands as a whole is ranked seventh out of the nine English regions for the total number of publicly accessible charge points, rapid charge points, and charge points per 100,000 people.
The report says the East Midlands has an average of 124 chargers per 100,000 people, while the EMCCA area has 122, compared with the England average of 172.
Provision also varies significantly between local areas. The report says Nottingham has 519 publicly accessible charge points, while Newark and Sherwood has 282 and Mansfield has 93. In Derbyshire, Derby has 324, Chesterfield has 201, Erewash has 67 and North East Derbyshire has 41.
A similar pattern is reported for rapid and ultra-rapid chargers, with Nottingham having 162, Newark and Sherwood 90 and Bassetlaw 89. Lower numbers are recorded in Gedling, with 26, Derbyshire Dales and High Peak, both with 28, South Derbyshire with 21, and North East Derbyshire with five.
The report says differences in population, urban and rural geography, travel patterns and existing infrastructure all affect provision, but the data can help identify areas where further assessment may be needed to ensure future demand is met.
It warns that insufficient provision risks disadvantaging residents, particularly those without off-street parking, and could create a “postcode lottery” in access to charging infrastructure. The report says this could affect residents, businesses and the region’s competitiveness if no action is taken.
National projections cited in the report suggest around 15,000 publicly accessible charge points will be needed across the EMCCA area by 2040, rising to about 19,000 by 2050. Forecasts also suggest electric vehicle uptake across the region could rise to more than 1.5 million by 2050.
Three main programmes are highlighted in the report: the future of the existing D2N2 charging network, the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure programme, and a pavement channel grant scheme for households without off-street parking.
The D2N2 EV charge point network is a partnership between Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Derby City Council and Derbyshire County Council. It provides more than 800 charge point sockets across 149 locations, mainly in off-street charging hubs.
The network includes 7kW, 22kW, 50kW rapid and 150kW ultra-rapid units, with chargers located at sites including council-owned car parks, leisure centres, park-and-ride locations and some on-street residential areas. The report specifically refers to the Nottingham tram Toton Park and Ride site, which has eight 50kW units.
The network began in 2018 after a 10-year concession framework contract was awarded to BP Pulse, with Nottingham City Council acting as the lead contracting authority. That contract is due to end in 2028.
The report says action is now needed to ensure the network continues to function. It says a “do-nothing” approach would result in charge point units being removed, affecting residents, businesses and visitors who have come to rely on them.
Because the original network was procured as an end-to-end solution, covering supply, installation, operation and maintenance, a new competitive procurement exercise will be needed to secure a successor operator.
The report says re-procurement would not only maintain the existing network but also create an opportunity to upgrade it for future demand over the next 15 to 20 years. This could include adding new locations, increasing the number of charge points at some sites, or upgrading charging speeds.
If approved by the EMCCA Board, the mayoral authority would act as the lead authority responsible for coordinating the project requirements to secure a new operator or operators for existing and new publicly accessible charging infrastructure across the region.
The work would include agreeing a procurement strategy, carrying out market engagement, preparing tender documents with constituent councils, defining the roles and responsibilities of EMCCA and local highway authorities, overseeing the transition to a new provider, and leading contract management and service performance.
The report says a large-scale and complex procurement process will need to begin during 2027/28 to make sure the current network continues operating when the BP Pulse contract expires in 2028. A formal decision on EMCCA’s role is expected to go to the EMCCA Board in July 2026.
Alongside the D2N2 network work, the report says the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund programme aims to deliver around 7,000 standard and fast charge point sockets across the region, with outputs of 7kW and 22kW, and a small number of 50kW rapid charge points.
The programme is backed by £13.1 million of Government LEVI capital funding, awarded directly to the four authorities and pooled through a joint procurement exercise led by Nottinghamshire County Council.
The Invitation to Tender has been published, with the contract expected to be awarded in October following evaluation. Each authority will oversee implementation in its own area with the appointed charge point operator or operators. Delivery is planned over the next four years.
Derbyshire County Council is also using a separate £2.5 million LEVI capital funding allocation to procure lamp column EV charge points, with a tender expected to seek between 1,000 and 4,000 new charge points across Derbyshire.
The report says that, with the D2N2 network succession and the new LEVI-funded charge points, the region is expected to meet projected national charge point requirements for 2030.
The Government confirmed a revised LEVI Capability Fund settlement for EMCCA on May 21, 2026. The report says this included a 50 per cent uplift, bringing the total allocation to £3,881,880 for 2026/27 to 2028/29. This is revenue funding intended to support the authority’s ability to plan and deliver EV infrastructure.
EMCCA is also progressing a pavement channel scheme after securing £945,000 from the Department for Transport’s EV Pavement Channel Grant in January 2026, later increased by £44,780 to a total of £989,780.
The scheme is intended to support households without off-street parking by allowing them to charge electric vehicles from the kerbside using their domestic electricity supply through highway-authority-approved pavement channels.
The cable from the charger buried in the pavement
The report says Nottinghamshire already has a pilot scheme under way and that the regional funding will allow pavement channel technology to be expanded across the EMCCA area.
Around 1,164 pavement channels are expected to be delivered through the funding. An initial allocation of £120,000 for 2026/27 has been approved for each of the four local highway authorities, with EMCCA retaining the remaining funding for future allocation based on delivery evidence and demand data reported to the Department for Transport.
Charging point on Victoria Embankment in Nottingham
The report says all four constituent authorities have received enquiries from residents who have been waitlisted while schemes are set up. Nottinghamshire County Council has installed more than 150 channels, Derbyshire County Council has more than 100 resident requests on its waitlist, and Derby and Nottingham city councils each report around 30 to 50 waitlisted requests.
The report also identifies possible future areas for development, including support for electrifying bus fleets, electric charging infrastructure in depots, trials of emerging technologies, workplace charging grants and public awareness activity.
Members of the Transport and Digital Connectivity Committee are being asked to give views on which areas are currently underserved by EV infrastructure, whether new technologies should be trialled, whether any issues are missing from the report, how far EMCCA should go in promoting consistent standards across the region, and how electric vehicle infrastructure should link with wider transport, energy, green growth and spatial development policies.
The committee’s recommendations will not in themselves finalise EMCCA’s strategic lead role or the funding allocation. The report says these recommendations are due to be taken to the EMCCA Board for decision.