Northumberland County Council has passed a motion to add 36 electric vehicle charging points to its public charging network, spread across 26 locations in the county.
Of the new charge points, 78 per cent will be installed on land owned by the council. The remaining units will be sited on land held by third parties and made available through licensing agreements.
The charging infrastructure is being financed with just over £1 million in external funding from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement. Revenue generated by the chargers is to be used to meet their running costs, management and maintenance, and the funding is intended to support the rollout of the charge points until 2029.
Installation and maintenance will be carried out by the council's in-house EV team.
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Cllr Richard Wearmouth, the cabinet member with responsibility for transport at Northumberland County Council, welcomed the additional investment in charging provision. He linked it to the size of the county's road network, noting that Northumberland has one of the largest in the country and that the necessary facilities are needed to help people get around.
Northumberland is a coastal region in the northeast of England that borders Scotland and is known for Hadrian's Wall and Northumberland National Park.
The charge point expansion follows other sustainable transport changes in the area: 14 BYD BD11 battery-electric buses entered service in the region a few months ago.