ONE of the leaders of a Ludlow environmental group caught in the eye of a storm over the siting of electric vehicle charging points in the town centre says that the technology is flawed and only a short term solution anyway.

“Ludlow 21 Sustainable Transport group recognise that EVs are only part of the solution to reducing emissions from transport and solving the many issues around how we all travel,” said David Currant, of the group.

“Car usage needs to be reduced by at least 30 per cent, the electricity used by EVs should ideally come from renewable sources and the procurement of materials for batteries is non-sustainable.

“We see EVs as a short term solution to be superseded in time by hydrogen where renewable energy is available in quantity to generate this.”

He agreed that mining for the metals used in EV batteries is environmentally damaging and can be exploitative.