Poundbury councillor Richard Biggs criticised a lack of infrastructure for electric car charging points in the courtyard areas at Poundbury for those who will not have garages.

“If the Council is serious about this there is an opportunity to press for this on large developments such as this,” he said.

He was told by senior planning officer Robert Lennis, who oversees major applications for Dorset Council, that there is no local policy for new developments to have charging points for electric cars and said that there may be ‘issues’ around who manages and pays for charging points in shared spaces.

“It is understood that this is a matter that the Duchy are looking at for Poundbury as a whole and to what the future technology is likely to be and what infrastructure may therefore be required. It could be that charging points could be subsequently included or those with garages can accommodate them within such spaces anyway. However, in the meantime, officers consider that given that this is a reserved matters application it would not be appropriate to require the provision of charging points.”

Cllr Robin Potter said that much of the Duchy site being discussed had been agreed ten years ago and that many things had changed since then, and needed reviewing.

Highways officer Ian Madgwick said what was needed was a clear policy, led by the Government, over car charging. He said that in a few years people might not need to plug anything into their vehicles but would park over an inductive pad in the road in much the same way that some mobile phones are now charged.

Cllr Potter said after the meeting that he was pleased that the issue would be now looked at.