Readers' Letters: The number of EV chargers is in decline? Hardly!

The number of EV chargers is not in decline – it’s quite the opposite. The Scotsman’s article “EV drivers ‘left high and dry’ amid charging points decline” (28 October) reads as though ChargePlace Scotland is the only EV charging network available to drivers. The reality is that it’s one of 80 now active across Scotland.

ChargePlace Scotland was an initial intervention, establishing an early network funded by the Scottish government ahead of demand, which gave early adopters the confidence to switch to electric.

In 2021 the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) published a report on public EV charging which made the case that a state-funded, state-subsidised network should be phased out in favour of a private sector-led delivery model to enable continued rapid expansion of public EV charging and encourage competition.

Earlier this year local energy specialist Gensource announced its expansion as a charge point operator with the completion of its first fully managed commercial EV project on the Archerfield Estate in East Lothian

Since then, SFT has seen the private sector-led rollout of EV chargers flourish, with Scottish government funding only needed to support those areas of Scotland less likely to benefit from standalone private sector investment, such as in rural and island communities, and on-street charging for those who don’t currently have access to lower cost home charging.

According to the latest data on public EV charging in Scotland, the private sector is now operating four out of every five public EV chargers, and the network has grown by around 7 per cent in the last 12 months.

Ultra-rapid charging (150kW and above) is crucial to support long-distance journeys and is almost exclusively financed and operated by the private sector. Scotland now has nearly 1,200 such chargers, representing a growth of 37 per cent in the last 12 months.

SFT has recently estimated that in the last three years at least £100 million has been invested by the private sector in Scotland’s public EV charging network, clearly demonstrating that investment is being made on the ground.

Matthew Jackson, Associate Director, Net Zero Transport team at the Scottish Futures Trust, Edinburgh

Unfair share

During the winter fuel allowance debate, comments and articles abounded about well-off pensioners receiving a fuel supplement that they didn't need. The Labour government's decision was to initially cancel it and then target it better using the tax system to recover money paid to the better off.

With the Chancellor's announcement of a £100 fuel supplement for those living in houses and flats with council tax bands A-D, a similar situation has now been created.

As an example, on a recent estate agents' site in Edinburgh, there was a two-bedroom flat in a desirable area for sale for £385,000 with a C council tax band. On the same site there was a three-bedroom family semi in a less desirable area costing £299,000 with an E council tax band, and numerous other similar examples.

This results in cases where those who can afford to buy a more expensive property get a fuel supplement, but those who cannot don't.

Surely this government, given its problems over the winter fuel allowance debacle, should have learned a lesson about the unfairness of giving across the board indiscriminate allowances, and devised a fairer method of distribution? Apparently not, with the Scottish government planning to follow suit.

Paul Lewis, Edinburgh

Chained potential

George Morton (Letters, 29 October) is right to extol the potential for massive amounts of power to be generated from the tides.

But it remains just that – potential. Official studies on the Severn Barrage were done in 1981,1987, 1989, 2007 (three), 2011 and 2024-25. No barrage yet, a status identical to the one first proposed across Morecambe Bay more than 20 years ago and still being studied, despite having a power potential similar to the Severn.

I know Morecambe Bay well, its enormous mud flats, the most extensive in Europe, having walked across after checking the tide tables, knowing that it races in with incredible speed, as exemplified by the tragic deaths by drowning of at least 22 Chinese cockle harvesters in 2004.

Whether the opposition to tidal barrier construction by birdwatchers has been overcome by their worries about climate change, we will have to wait and see. Budgetary constraints almost certainly mean the wait will be long, particularly because the interests of some pressure groups seems to have shifted from global warming to events in the Middle East.

Hugh Pennington, Aberdeen

Save oil cash

As King Charles arrives in Guyana for a state visit, the UK should note what that small South American nation, a former British colony, is doing with its oil.

Guyana’s economy grew by more than 19 per cent last year, yet its government pays every dollar it earns from oil into a sovereign wealth fund governed by the Natural Resource Fund Act, with strict rules on what can be withdrawn. That fund passed US$4 billion this spring and is projected to near US$12bn by 2030.

By contrast, the UK has nothing similar to show for half a century of North Sea oil and gas.

Last week, Chancellor John Healey admitted that if we had saved those revenues, as Norway did, the UK would now hold a fund worth around a trillion pounds. Instead, the money was spent, and his new Energy Wealth Fund starts from scratch with just £2 billion.

Every part of the UK has lost out, but none more than Scotland, whose waters produced most of that oil and gas and whose communities now face the energy transition with no legacy to draw on.

Guyana has learned the lesson Britain ignored. As the North Sea winds down and Scotland looks to offshore wind, we must insist that this time a share of our total energy wealth is saved for future generations, and that Scotland has a real say in how it is managed.

Alex Orr, Edinburgh

Infrastructure?

The recent publication of data regarding regional environmental frameworks highlights a critical need to evaluate the real-world infrastructure soundness of local development allocations before greenfield land is permanently released for housing.

In Penicuik, the draft Local Development Plan (MLDP2) proposes allocating 438 high-density greenfield homes along a western ridge corridor intersecting the 120-year-old Talla Aqueduct, which supplies 27 million gallons of raw water daily to the regional network.

While spatial models consistently frame this expansion as sustainable, a formal statutory disclosure issued by Midlothian Council this week under reference FOI-878764447 reveals a severe deficit in infrastructure readiness.

The local authority has officially admitted in writing that six years after the initial phase of houses was occupied, the primary link road “is still legally under construction” due to outstanding drainage improvements, and, crucially, confesses that a mandatory Stage 3 Road Safety Audit has never been carried out for the junction.

This above-ground transport standstill runs parallel to formal disclosures from Scottish Water confirming that six separate wastewater applications covering the exact same catchment remain entirely unvested and frozen due to a multi-year history of unresolved developer defects.

Proceeding to pile hundreds of additional homes onto a network where public bodies officially admit that basic road safety audits do not exist and underlying sewers are defective presents an immediate risk to the local regional watershed and lower-lying residential boundaries.

National planning policy under NPF4 Policy 18 mandates an “Infrastructure First” approach. Local authorities must not use abstract mathematical models to override real-world infrastructure insolvency.

Catherine Scarr, Penicuik, Midlothian

Stranger than...

News that Nicola Sturgeon fancies writing a fictional novel (your report, 29 October) should come as no surprise.

In fact, she may be overqualified in the genre.

Having fed fiction to her ever decreasing (over the last ten years) see you Jimmy brigade, it will be a perfect fit for London’s latest socialite. Instead of the Ipcress File, she could trot out The Indyref File – an amazing tale of wool-pulling over the eyes of the masses with a resounding thud for a finish.

Or, instead of Catch 22, perhaps a collection of essays on all the policies she promised to fulfil but neatly didn’t, called Dropped 99, to reflect the magnitude of those failures.

David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders

…fiction?

The SNP’s Mhairi Black left politics to take up a career in stand-up comedy. Nicola Sturgeon contemplates a career writing fiction. It would seem that the past careers of both will be an aid for their futures!

William Ballantine, Bo'ness, West Lothian

Pipe down

The major cause of global warming is the almost unlimited quantities of hot air expelled by our politicians and the host of political commentators on both TV and radio, especially around the time of budgets.

For the sake of the planet and our mental health may I suggest we curtail all political discourse on these mediums to a maximum two hours per week.

David Reid, Saline, Dunfermline, Fife

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