The absence of any public electric vehicle (EV) charging points in Kelty has been highlighted by a Fife MSP during a debate in the Scottish Parliament.

Alex Rowley, Scottish Labour's transport spokesperson, raised the need for greater partnership between the Scottish Government and local authorities, businesses and communities to provide better EV charging infrastructure.

Mr Rowley said: “If we are serious about meeting our rightly ambitious net-zero goals and successfully transitioning away from petrol and diesel in favour of electric vehicles, the very basic infrastructure needs to be in place.

"I have had constituents contact me from across Fife pointing out that as well as the cost of the cars being a barrier, the lack of charging points is putting them off.

“While electric vehicles may be a viable option for those who can charge their cars at home, the public charging points are not in place for many across Fife to make the switch."

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Mr Rowley raised Office of National Statistics figures that show Fife has the fourth lowest number of public EV chargers for its population in Scotland - 44 chargers per 100,000 people, including seven rapid chargers. In total the Kingdom has 166 public EV chargers, of which 26 are rapid charges.

Some areas fair better than others, with Mr Rowley pointing out there were non in the village of Kelty.

"The reality of the situation is that there remains a postcode lottery for provision as different local authorities work on this project in different ways," he said

“There is now a great need for the Scottish Government to work in partnership with those local authorities, as well as businesses and local communities, to plug the gaps in our infrastructure.

"I've been in touch with Fife Council, but I am clear they will need the funding in place. I am also urging them to work with local communities and, indeed, local employers to develop a plan for the roll-out of a charging network across the Kingdom.

“As I also mentioned when speaking on this in parliament, I do not believe our transport climate targets will be met simply by replacing every vehicle in the driveway with an electric equivalent, so it is essential that more is done to encourage the use of public transport, and the only way to do that is to ensure public transport is affordable, accessible and reliable.”

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The Scottish Government said that they are supporting local authorities "to create comprehensive EV infrastructure strategy and expansion plans for their areas." and that £65 million had been invested since 2011 to develop the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) network.

A Transport Scotland spokesperson added: "There are variations in public charge point distribution across Scotland’s local authorities, and there are many reasons for this, including the availability of private off-street charging opportunities, including home and workplace charge points.

“In addition to funding over 2,600 charge points on the public CPS network, the Scottish Government has increased charging capacity across Scotland by also funding the installation of over 20,000 home and workplace charge points.

"Last year ministers also introduced legislation requiring car parks of new buildings to install charge points.

“To meet Scotland’s statutory climate change targets, the pace and scale of investment in the public network will need to increase over the coming years and it will be unsustainable for the public sector to deliver this alone.

"Our new EV Infrastructure Fund aims to leverage £60 million of public and private investment to increase the size of the network to 6,000 charge points by 2026.

"As part of the EVIF programme, the Scottish Government is supporting Scotland’s local authorities to create comprehensive EV infrastructure strategy and expansion plans for their areas.

"The ChargePlace Scotland network provides a strong foundation to support this, and will be an integral part of a transition towards a public charging network that is largely financed and delivered by the private sector.

"This is in line with our EV Vision published in June this year that sets out what an ideal public charging offer for cars and vans should look like."