A MOTORIST who switched to an electric car four months ago has been left feeling flat over a lack of charging points in East Renfrewshire.

Software expert Alan Campbell, 60, said he has had trouble finding any that actually work, particularly in his home village of Neilston and neighbouring Barrhead.

The dad-of-two, who drives a Skoda Enyaq, said electric vehicle (EV) chargers at Neilson Leisure Centre and the Barrhead Foundry are broken.

He added: “There is a severe lack of fast or rapid chargers in our area. There is one in the car park in Cochrane Street, Barrhead, which hasn’t worked for weeks.

“I have tried contacting the people who run them but nothing ever seems to get done.

“At present, I have to drive from my home in Neilston to Paisley to get my car charged, which is a real pain in the neck.

“I work in Edinburgh, so I need to make sure my car is charged up every day.

“There are plenty of places on the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh but nothing locally. This is a shameful state of affairs.”

Alan says that a charging point at Neilston train station has been out of action for more than a year, with no sign of it being fixed or replaced.

He has also tried the EV charger at the Broom Shops in Mearns Road, Newton Mearns, but it too was broken.

Alan has now called on East Renfrewshire Council to do more to encourage the use of electric cars.

He added: “They don’t understand what is required to support the new wave of drivers that is literally round the corner.

“We really need more rapid chargers in place so we can charge up and get going in an hour or less, especially in shopping centre car parks and outside other public venues.

“The problem is that you have different companies and organisations that are providing charging points.

“We need a proper plan that brings all of the bodies together.”

This is the second time in two months that concerns have been expressed by Barrhead News readers about the lack of charging points.

A 26-year-old resident also complained about having to travel to Silverburn Shopping Centre to charge up his car.

A council spokesperson said: “We met with BP Pulse, who are responsible for these chargers, and it was agreed they will send out an engineer to check the issues with these units and repair them as soon as possible.

“An electric vehicle charging strategy is currently being developed to support our ambitions for the area.

“As part of this work, we recently met with Scottish Futures Trust to discuss new funding and delivery models to support the further expansion of our publicly-available EV charging network.”