A MOTORIST has spoken of his frustration after Bradford Council pulled its city centre electric car charging point from the public network.

There are now no 24-hour public charge points inside the ring road, according to Nissan Leaf driver Andrew Rogerson.

Mr Rogerson, an IT worker, of Cowling, near Keighley, who often travels to Bradford for his job, said the infrastructure for electric cars was very poor in Bradford, compared to cities like Manchester.

He said the situation was made worse when Bradford Council, which had until recently allowed members of the public to use its charging point at the Jacobs Well office in Nelson Street, decided to pull it from public use and dedicate it to the authority’s new fleet of electric cars and vans.

Mr Rogerson, who bought his Leaf just under a year ago because of the financial savings possible, said: “It is quite frustrating, really, because they want people to use electric vehicles but then don’t give you any help for it. We are not asking for the world.”

The leader of the Green group on Bradford Council has called the move “disgraceful”.

Councillor Martin Love said it was commendable that the authority was running an electric vehicle fleet, but said if it wanted a dedicated charge point, it should install another.

He said: “Given the air quality problems, we should be encouraging people to use these vehicles rather than petrol and diesel.”

The charge point was one of three installed in the district last year, at a total cost to the taxpayer of £31,570. The other two points, at Baildon and Keighley, remain available to the public.

Earlier this year, Bradford Council announced it was bringing in a fleet of nine new electric cars and vans to help the authority go green.

A spokesman for the authority said it had now removed its Jacobs Well point from the public network to dedicate it to this fleet.

He said: “There is a need to ensure the vehicles are fully charged first thing so that drivers have the range needed to do journeys – and it’s important that they do, otherwise they could be replaced by conventional vehicles – a backward step.”

The spokesman acknowledged there was “a gap in electric vehicle charger provision” and said the council was looking to draw private investment to install more charge points.