Electric vehicle charging points will soon be coming to Old Mill Road car park in East Kilbride.
A new substation is set to be built on site to allow South Lanarkshire Council (SLC) to install the charging points and increase the size of the network across the region.
Councillors approved plans for a 99-year lease of a 25 square metre section of the car park to Murphy Power Distribution to allow for the installation and maintenance of the substation, at a meeting of the housing and technical resources committee on June 30.
Joanne Forbes, assets and estates services property manager, told the committee: "The Transport Scotland Local Authority Installation Fund is funding a project to increase access to electric vehicle charging points throughout South Lanarkshire.
"The specific proposals for Old Mill Road, East Kilbride require a new substation.
"As this will exclusively serve the vehicle charging point, it is not proposed to charge a rental."
Last year, SLC took part in a trial with Scottish Power Energy Networks (SPEN) and North Lanarkshire Council to test the capacity for increasing the charging network and infrastructure across Lanarkshire.
Known as Project PACE, the £5.3m scheme was due to see more than 200 charging points installed across the county, however, capacity issues with the SPEN energy network along with additional costs uncovered after “more detailed investigations” forced the project to be scaled back.
In total, 64 charging points were installed at 19 hubs in South Lanarkshire including ones at Abington, Cambuslang, Carluke, Carnwath, Carstairs, Crawford, East Kilbride, Forth, Hamilton, Lanark, Larkhall, Rutherglen and Strathaven.
Despite COVID-related delays, the project was completed in spring this year - about four months behind the original plans.
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