CALLS have been made for electric car charging points to be installed in new developments.

Councillors say they developers should at least be made to install the infrastructure for charging points.

It came as the borough’s planning committee discussed a potential new development of up to 60 homes on Moredon Recreation Ground. The development will help fund a major new sports facility, comprising an all-weather football pitch, cycle track and cricket pitches.

Swindon Borough Council is behind the £3.6 million redevelopment. Planners at the civic offices have drawn up a planning design brief, which sets out the ground rules for how the new housing development should look.

Councillors suggested that new electric car charging points should be written into the new design brief, requiring future developers to install the infrastructure.

Coun Toby Elliott, a Priory Vale ward councillor and vice chairman of the planning committee, said: “As this is before any planning application has even come near it and this is a guiding document, would it be appropriate to put something about green infrastructure and our wish as a council to put in electric parking charging points within the development when established?”Other councillors backed the move. The planning design brief expected to go out to consultation later this autumn.

However, Jane Milner-Barry, Labour’s town centre spokesman, called for a wider change to rules governing electric car charging points.

She asked that a proposed development of the Stagecoach bus depot on Eastcott Road have electric charging points installed as part of car parking plans.

“This is government policy and I think it’s time we got on with it,” she said.

Andy Brown, planning officer, said: “We are looking at that in some of our schemes.” He questioned whether planners could secure charging points for all car parking spaces, but he agreed it was reasonable to request plans are put in place to ensure it could happen in the future.

Coun Elliott said he agreed with Coun Milner-Barry that Swindon should be “moving towards a zero carbon economy as much as possible”. However, he added: “As I don’t know the specifics of what financial capability the developers have, I would ask that that is the goal but we leave it to the officers to negotiate.”

He suggested the planning committee could ask council officers to draw up new guidance on electric car charging points. Called supplementary planning documents, they add extra rules not already covered in a council’s local plan.

Swindon is generally regarded as a leader in electric and hydrogen-powered cars. Last year, a group comprising of Swindon businesses and the council, showed off their unusual hydrogen fuel vehicles at an event in Lydiard Park.

Council leader David Renard said: “Swindon has been at the forefront of hydrogen fuel technology in the UK."