Anger is building in New Cumnock after residents claim they have been “let down” by faulty charge points for electric vehicles in the area and are having to travel more than 12 miles to find an available point.
The EV charge point in Castle Place, New Cumnock had been out of action for some time, but ChargePlace Scotland now say this issue has been resolved.
However, local man Andrew Hoffin says that the charge point has been fixed in the past and has quickly broken again.
The New Cumnock man believes serious attention needs to be paid to the charge point, because people with eclectic vehicles are then having to drive to Cumnock to charge their cars, where they are also met with issues.
Andrew said: “It’s been offline since the new year, not to mention the many time before that.
“It has been quickly fixed and then broken within a few minutes of the engineer fixing it. I went and plugged in after it was supposedly fixed six weeks ago and again it didn’t work.
“I’ve been onto all local councillors, ChargePlace Scotland and Ayrshire Roads Alliance.
“Myself and locals to the village have to drive to Cumnock to charge and when we eventually get there the public chargepoints are all being used by council vehicles, so we have been left hung out to dry travelling as far as Mauchline for a quick charge.
“The council in Cumnock are using all the chargers whilst they have six or more chargers at Rothesay house empty.
“I’ve had replies from two different people from Ayrshire Roads Alliance and ChargePlace Scotland. It’s been waiting on parts for a month which haven’t arrived.
“Now they’ve decided the whole unit needs replaced.”
An East Ayrshire Council spokesperson responded: “The Ayrshire Roads Alliance has replaced the RCD on this charger and has been waiting for additional parts, which have been difficult to source due to global supply shortages. Two engineers, from the supplier, will attend the site with the required parts. They have visited the site twice previously and been unable to pin point the issue.
“If they are unable to resolve the issue with the new parts, then the Alliance will contact the supplier this week and ensure that the charger is replaced at the supplier’s expense. This will take a few weeks to implement.”
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