ELECTRIC Cars are only part of the solution and we all need to change the way we travel, a meeting was told.

The event, focussing on electric cars, was attended by 130 people. It was held by Climate Action Ilkley and Ilkley U3A, at the Clarke Foley Centre on November 13.

Speakers, included Pam and Nick Pearce, who own an electric vehicle. They described driving around Ilkley as “great” but said longer journeys needed careful planning around charging points.

Neil Stevens, from Climate Action Ilkley, said: “Mark Stidworthy, Ilkley Town Mayor, talked about two charging points in South Hawksworth Street car park to add to the two already installed in Booths car park. Rapid charging points cost around £40,000 each so funding these in full was beyond the scope of the council’s budget.”

“Next to speak was Neill Morrison, Energy and Low Carbon Manager at Bradford Council. West Yorkshire Combined Authority have a budget of £3.2 million to install 88 charging points of which 20 will be in the Bradford District. The network is due to be completed by March 2020.”

Mr Stevens said: “Martin Higgitt is a Transport Consultant and talked about car sharing clubs. He pointed out that we use a supermarket trolley several times a week but we wouldn’t want to own one. So why not cars? Sharing would reduce car ownership and number of vehicles on our roads. A commercial company is considering making two cars available in Ilkley one of which could be a hybrid.”

He said Huddersfield University lecturer Anna Davidson, put electric cars in perspective.

“While electric vehicles reduce carbon emissions and air pollution somewhat, there is still a carbon cost to manufacturing and serious ethical questions around mining for lithium,” Mr Stevens said.

“Simply shifting all our cars to electric does not solve the wider problems tied to our dependence on private vehicles, such as road deaths, high levels of physical inactivity and inefficient and unsustainable use of land and resources.”

Conclusions from the meeting were that people needed to walk, cycle and use public transport - although electric cars are a seen as a good solution for some, particularly the elderly or infirm.