Alison Frame
Electric vehicle charging will be made easier to install in many parts of New South Wales.
This follows the New South Wales Department of Planning and Environment deciding planning approval isn’t needed to put charging stations in car parks, depots and other vehicle related facilities across the state.
Battery recharging or exchanging premises can now be built with development consent in some business and industrial zones, and at service stations, highway service centres and car washing facilities, policy and strategy deputy secretary Alison Frame says.
“The NSW Government is committed to showing leadership in the move to cleaner technologies and making it easier for electric car charging and battery exchanging stations to be built across the state is one of the ways in which we can do this,” she says.
These changes are part of a wider suite of amendments made to the state environmental planning policy (SEPP) infrastructure 2007 that will ultimately make it easier and faster to deliver and maintain infrastructure.
“These changes have been made in response to feedback received during the public exhibition of broader changes proposed to the infrastructure SEPP last year,” Frame says.
“NSW is experiencing a record number of infrastructure projects across the state that will help deliver new homes, jobs and lively communities that people want to live in. We are constantly looking at new ways to ensure smooth delivery of infrastructure,” she says.
Other changes include providing more services and conveniences at commuter hubs by allowing car hire, servicing and cleaning at commuter car parks and markets at railway stations without consent and allowing retail and businesses to be set up in commuter car parks and transport interchanges subject to development approval.
The policy will also promote clean energy by allowing the generation of electricity using waves, tides or aquatic thermal to be permitted with consent.
Visit Infrastructure SEPP for more information.
