About a month ago, we mentioned that we would soon be supporting the launch of a unique community share offer that aims to change sustainable transport in the North West.

Well, the launch has been and gone and the Charge My Street share offer is NOW OPEN as anyone who follows our social media should already be well aware. We’ve tweeted and Facebooked about little else since the offer went live on the 24th. We’re like a new mother or Piers Morgan after a Greggs vegan pastry reveal.

It closes on 31 March so you can expect to hear more about the progress being made in the campaign to increase the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in the rural North West.

As previously mentioned, Charge My Street are raising £130,000 worth of shares in their community benefit society to help fund the installation of 100 EV chargepoints in Cumbria and Lancashire. These chargepoints will be owned by the Charge My Street shareholders and placed in public locations where they can be an asset to EV drivers who don’t have their own driveway to charge in.

Over a third of UK residents don’t have their own driveway so it’s a big ask for a flat-sharer in Carlisle or a villager in Troutbeck to switch from a system where they know they can quickly grab petrol at a station in town to one where if a car is parked at the one chargepoint for miles around, they’re out of luck.

More public chargepoints in convenient locations are what is needed to solve this problem and build people’s confidence to switch to the cleaner and cheaper EV technology. Following the moving of government targets earlier this month, this is going to need to start to happen sooner rather than later to clean up our air and slow the rate of climate change.

We’ve been flat out here at CAfS spreading the word about the share offer to those who might be interested with only the weather stopping us from physically climbing onto the roof of the office and shouting it at passersby.

You can find out how much has been raised so far and, dare I say, even invest yourself by going to the Charge My Street website.