Hi-tech charging points for electric cars are set to be installed across West Yorkshire.

The executive board of transport authority Metro is expected to give the go-ahead to the £475,000 scheme when it next meets on Friday.

The move is designed to reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality across the county by encouraging the take-up of electric cars.

The chargers themselves would be ‘rapid’ points, which take only 30 minutes to charge a vehicle.

A Metro report said these were preferable to the ‘slow’ points, which use a standard 13 Amp supply, and can take up to eight hours for a full charge.

This is because the rapid chargers would help tackle the problem of ‘range anxiety’ – the worry that drivers will run out of power during a long journey.

Transport bosses had successfully applied for a £345,000 grant towards the project from the Government’s Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV). Metro then put forward £125,000 of its own money. The cash has to be spent by the end of March 2015.

Up to 14 potential sites for the charging points have been identified, in each of the county’s five local authority districts.

The undisclosed sites have been chosen because they are close to major routes across West Yorkshire.

But organisers still have to fully investigate each site, draw up legal agreements with landowners and install the equipment.

The project will be co-ordinated with similar schemes in York and South Yorkshire.

Metro has also written to all train operators saying it could help them apply for funding for electric charging points in railway station car parks. So far, the East Coast Main Line has applied for funding to install charge points at up to four bays at Wakefield Westgate railway station.

According to online electric charging map Zap-Map, the Bradford district has no public charging points of any kind.