DRIVERS will be good to go in electric cars thanks to three new car park charging stations.

Car parks at Woodstock Way in Caldicot, Castle Dell in Chepstow, and Glendower Street in Monmouth are among six in Monmouthshire to to get new electric charging points.

Work has begun to install 65 electric vehicle charging points at 34 sites across Gwent, including the local ones. 

The council is one of five local authorities in Gwent to have been awarded a share of £459,000 for the project by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) with match funding by all five authorities. 

The Welsh Government and Natural Resources Wales both contributed funding towards a feasibility study to support development of the project, which is being operated by Welsh company called Silverstone Green Energy, who will install, manage and maintain the charge points until 2025.

The points can charge from 7kW to 22kW depending on the capacity available during the time of charging. 

The aim is for all installations to be complete by March 31, with charge points operational next day.

Sites were selected following a regional feasibility study, which looked at all local authority owned car parks to determine which ones met the OLEV On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme requirements. 

Western Power Distribution was also engaged as part of the study to determine suitability of sites and costs to provide the electricity supply. 

A public consultation exercise was also carried out to determine current and future demand.

Councillor Jane Pratt, Cabinet Member for Green Infrastructure, said: “I am thrilled Monmouthshire will soon be receiving these fast charge points following the successful funding bid.

“We want to encourage everyone to think about what they can do to help reduce the impact on climate change.

“Turning to electric vehicles is one way of doing that and the provision of these new charging points go a long way to supporting people who already use electric vehicles.”

The best way to search for charge points is to use Zap Map https://www.zap-map.com/live/ and zoom in to the relevant local authority area.