Camden Council have been urged to install more electric car charging points in Hampstead.

With only four in place in the area, Conservative councillors are calling on the council to take advantage of government funding which has been made available to cover the cost of building the charging points.

Hamish Hunter, campaigning alongside Hampstead councillors Oliver Cooper and Stephen Stark, says that he believes that residents want these charging points.

“I’ve asked residents if they’d consider moving to a hybrid car and they say yes if there were more points available.

“Hampstead Town has 4 charging points with maxiumum 2 hour stays which are just not meeting the needs of the community.

“We want to show Camden there is sufficient demand and that they should be bidding for this government funding.”

The government currently offers funding for 75 per cent of the cost of installing charging points but the council have installed just 33 across Camden.

Mr Hunter believes it is important to encourage drivers to swap their diesels for electric cars as the country faces an air quality crisis.

A report earlier this year by TFL and King’s College London suggested that 80pc of school children in Camden are breathing illegal levels of nitrogen dioxie.

“Earlier this year I volunteered with Camden Air Action to monitor air pollution levels around Hampstead’s schools and the results were shocking. One of the biggest causes of our poor air quality is cars, and we need to do everything we can to encourage the switch to hybrid and electric vehicles.”

“We want to use existing lampposts, to avoid cluttering our streets, and allow the parking spaces to be dual use, so we don’t reduce our precious parking capacity. It’s vital we do everything we can to help tackle our air pollution problem.”

The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has recently introduced a T-charge; an added charge for drivers entering central London whilst there are proposals by the goverment to pay drivers to scrap their old cars.

There are currently around 120,000 electric cars on Britain’s roads.

Wandsworth Council is exploring the possibility of putting electric charging points on all lamp posts on residential streets.