THE number of charging stations in the Dudley borough for cleaner, greener electric cars is below average - a BBC investigation has found.

The BBC's Shared Data Unit has carried out an extensive study looking at data from Open Charge Map, a crowd-sourced website of charging locations, and Dudley falls in the below average category for the rate of charging stations per 1,000 vehicles.

The borough has just 22 charging points for 389 licensed electric cars on the road.

According to the BBC investigation - the UK's patchy network of charging points is discouraging drivers from embracing electric cars.

Drivers can charge their vehicles in more than 7,000 public locations across the UK, with the average distance between points ranging from 0.16km in Westminster to 10km in Craven, North Yorkshire.

In Dudley the average distance between charging points is 0.85km.

The government says it plans to expand on the current infrastructure but Nicholas Lyes, RAC head of roads policy, said: “Despite the Government’s ambitions to accelerate the take-up of cleaner vehicles, charging infrastructure is presently something of a postcode lottery, and patchy at best in some parts of the country.

“RAC research has found the lack of charging infrastructure is one of the three main barriers for electric vehicle take-up, along with range anxiety and high upfront vehicle costs.

“Clearly, we need to improve this access to charge points as a whole, but special attention needs to be given to installing more rapid chargers on the strategic road network as well as adding charging capability at car parks where people spend longer periods, such as at shopping and leisure centre car parks.

“We’d also like to see local authorities work more closely with the Government to find on-street charging solutions.

"The key is to give drivers the confidence to go electric, which will not happen quickly unless they are given the right incentives to do so, alongside easy access to reliable charging infrastructure.”

Dudley Council chiefs say a number of initiatives are being developed to encourage people to favour more eco-friendly transport methods in the borough and Alan Lunt, Dudley's strategic director of place and deputy chief executive, told the News: "Through the introduction of the council's Parking Standards Supplementary Planning Document in September 2017, there is now a requirement for electric charging points to be included in all new residential and commercial developments."

Dudley does not appear among the country's 28 local authorities that have taken advantage of the government’s £2.5m funding pot for the On-street Residential Chargepoint Scheme to help drivers to charge their vehicle.

But a council spokesman said: "Regionally there is not believed to be a significant requirement for electric vehicle charging points at this time.

"In our region those who own electric vehicles are typically from more affluent houses with multiple cars and adequate parking, where charging is largely done on private drives and we therefore haven’t applied for funding at this time.

"We will continue to monitor the need for on street charging points as technologies and trends evolve."

To help make Dudley a greener borough - Dudley Council is working with West Midlands Combined Authority to improve public transport in the borough to reduce reliance on cars and Mr Lunt said the extending of the Metro to Brierley Hill has the potential to cut car use in the borough.

Plans are also afoot, thanks to government funding of £1.5million, to cut emissions from buses that travel through areas of poor air quality and to make improvements to highways so traffic flows more freely - therefore improving air quality.

The improvements are expected to take place around Castle Gate and Burnt Tree in Dudley and Wordsley High Street within the next two years.