Leicester Sports Arena, home to the Leicester Riders and Leicester Cobra’s Wheelchair Basketball clubs, has installed a rapid electric car charger at its Charter Street site.
Encouraging sustainable transport in a bid to meet environmental targets, the charger was installed by the Arena Project in partnership with British Gas and ChargePoint Services Ltd. as part of a larger development across the Leicester area.
Adam Clarke, Assistant City Mayor for Energy and Sustainability and Trustee of the Leicester Riders Foundation, said: “This is a great asset for the arena, and a welcome addition to the network of charging units we are rolling out around the city.”
It has a partnership between the Leicester Riders, Leicester College and Leicester City Council. The Arena Project opened the community sports venue and basketball centre in January this year as part of a £6 million regeneration of the Charter Street area.
The new charger, located in the arena car park and with full disabled access, works on a pay as you go service, allowing electric car users to charge their vehicles whilst using the newly refurbished facilities.
Arena Project Director Kevin Routledge said: “We are delighted to be providing this service to Arena users, and play our small part in improving the access to charging for electric cars, thereby helping to improve the environment of the city.
“We believe the arena is a really important facility for the community, and making it accessible, while contributing to the city’s environmental targets, are important objective for us.”
Funded by ChargePoint Services Ltd, the charger is part of the CPS GENIE network, the UK’s most reliable EV charging system.
Managing Director of ChargePoint, Alex Bamberg said: “We are extremely pleased to be able to support this project alongside the Leicester Sports Arena.
“Their forward thinking approach in terms of the provision of re-fuelling for electric vehicles whilst drivers are engaged in their sports activity, using any of the other facilities or just wanting to charge their car is the ideal scenario for encouraging the take up of electric cars.”
By Jennifer Morris
