Electric vehicle drivers in the Burnham-On-Sea area will be able to charge their cars at a popular garden centre in Brent Knoll soon.
Planning permission has been granted to Sanders Garden Centre for an electric vehicle charging company to install five ultra-rapid charging points in the store’s car park.
The chargers will be installed on land currently used informally for coach parking, meaning there will be no overall loss of car parking spaces. The charging points will be available during the garden centre’s opening hours.
The proposals were submitted by MER Charging UK Ltd, a European electric vehicle charging company, which has over 25,000 charge points for landowners and local authorities across the UK, Norway, Germany, Austria and Sweden.
The planning application said: “This site forms part of a wider car park serving Sanders Garden Centre and can be accessed off the A38 (Bristol Road). The site itself is currently in use as a hard surface-level car park which provides parking for the garden centre.”
“The car park is owned and operated by garden centre operator Blue Diamond Ltd, and this application is being submitted with their support. The proposals will replace the existing informal coach parking area which is located in the south western corner of the car park.”
It adds: “This proposal will provide ultra-rapid EV charging facilities for both customers at Sanders Garden Centre as well as to the general public, thereby improving the wider public’s access to such service.”
“As the proposal is for ultra-rapid chargers, the application proposals will also include ancillary infrastructure in the form of a substation, triple bank unit, meter cabinet and harmonic filter. The substation will be enclosed by seven bollards that reach one metre in height for safety reasons to restrict public access to this technical equipment.”
“To facilitate this development, this proposal will regularise the area of hardstanding which has been in informal use as a coach parking area. As such, no car parking is being lost as a result of this proposal.”
