WEST Point House has claimed the title of the first place on Walney Island - and one of the first in Barrow - to be equipped with electric vehicle (EV) charging points in a bid to reduce the environmental impact of their business.

A double socket has been installed by Lancaster based company Charge My Street with the hope of increasing charging opportunities for locals and the 40 residents of West Point House.

The installation of the chargepoint was done as part of an ongoing project to establish 100 new publicly accessible EV chargepoints across Cumbria and Lancashire.

Charge My Street is also aiming to install around 200 brand new chargepoints across the entirety of the UK by the end of March 2021.

Deputy mayor of Barrow Helen Wall officially opened the chargepoint as it gave its first charge to an EV this week.

Helen said: “I was very thrilled to take part in launching the chargepoint today.

"We in Barrow are proud to have a low carbon committee and all our members are extremely passionate about low carbon issues. This chargepoint represents a great step forward for Walney."

Throughout the period of national lockdown, the owners of West Point House have been busy planning their return. Innovative and environmentally conscious, Heather and John strive to reduce the impact of their business whilst maintaining the comfort of their guests.

Heather Cockett Phillips, joint owner of West Point House said:

“We are truly delighted that we are able to offer our residents and the wider community the opportunity to go green and use an electric car. Recent weeks where people have had to stay at home and not travel in their cars has shown a reduction in pollution levels -wouldn’t it be great if we could keep this going to reduce the damage humans do to the earth!”

Charge My Street is a community benefit society that installs and operates EV charge points funded through share offer investment from members of the public.

Will Maden of Charge My Street said: “The level on enthusiasm for more sustainable ways of living we’ve seen on Walney has been brilliant to see. We are looking for sites where landowners have a desire to see more EVs on the roads and a sense of benefit to their community and we have certainly found that at West Point House”.

The news comes at a time when the UK government has announced its own plans for expanding the EV network across the nation as well as statistics showing a rapid increase in uptake of EV use among the populace.

Charge My Street will be hosting a webinar on June 30 about their project to install 100 EV chargepoints.

Charge My Street are still looking for sites that are eligible for further installations.

Anyone who would like to discover more about the project or attend the webinar should register on the website at: www.chargemystreet.co.uk/.