Council chiefs said they were happy with the progress of a scheme to install electric vehicle charging points – after revealing they generated less than £4,000 income last year.

Staffordshire Moorlands District Council has installed 12 EV chargers at three of its car parks in Leek and Cheadle, with eight more set to come online.

Councillor Nigel Yates, portfolio holder for climate change and environment, told scrutiny committee members the charging points generated revenue of £3,989 in 2025/26.

While he admitted that greater use of the chargers would be preferable, Cllr Yates insisted the council had been right to get 'ahead of the curve' on the issue, rather than doing nothing and waiting for demand to increase.

Cllr Yates was responding to a question posed by opposition Conservative opposition councillor James Aberley, who previously led on the council's charing point programme as a cabinet member.

Cllr Aberley asked whether the income generated so far represented a 'good outcome' or whether more needed to be done to increase take-up.

Cllr Yates explained that when the Labour administration inherited the charging point scheme in 2023, it had decided it should be focused on the visitor economy, to ensure that people coming to the Moorlands with EVs would be able to charge them.

He said: "There's a quote from the film Field of Dreams, which says something along the lines of 'build it and they shall come'. I think that's the thing about EV chargers.

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"You're caught between a rock and a hard place. Do you provide nothing until EV cars are prevalent all over the place and you have a myriad of complaints, so then you have to have a knee jerk reaction? Or do you look at the mood music, the direction of travel, national policy and regional policy?

"So I think we've done the right thing to try and be ahead of the curve. We've not charged and rushed and done it in a panic. The implementation is still going through. The latest figures would suggest that we're approaching breaking even on costs.

"I would like that curve to be an awful lot steeper, but I'm quite happy with the way it's going."

The existing charging points, which are managed by electricity company E.ON, are located at Moorlands House and Stockwell Street car parks in Leek, and South Moorlands Leisure Centre in Cheadle.

Cllr Yates raised concerns over the charging points at Tape Street car park in Cheadle not working. Martin Owen, director of finance and customer services, explained that the Tape Street charging points require a new network connection, which is being arranged.

Charging points are also due to come online at Biddulph Valley Leisure Centre.