Electric car charging stations in Wakefield to be run by ENGIE

A total of 13 stations will be created across the area by March 2020, to allow vehicles to refuel.

At least six of those are to be set aside for taxi firms, who have been forced to give up a number of older cars as a result of tough new emissions rules brought in by the council.

It is not yet known where the charging points will be, but a proposed list of locations has been handed to officers at the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), who oversee decisions on transport in the region.

Wakefield Council said they were unable to release the list of suggested sites, as each place was subject to "survey work" to determine how suitable they are to do the job.

Final confirmation on where the charging points will be is expected later this summer.

In a council document about the charging points, it said approval had been given to "enter into a call-off agreement for ENGIE Power Ltd to provide and operate the charge points at the approved locations".

The company signed a 10 year partnership deal with Wakefield Council in 2017 to look after a number of public facilities, but was subsequently criticised for failing on hundreds of contractual obligations.

ENGIE, which also delivers catering in more than 80 local schools, was struggling to comply with health and safety standards and giving the council financial information which was "poor at best", a public meeting was told last September.

However Wakefield Council said last month that ENGIE had improved its performance "significantly" since then, and was going "above and beyond expectations" in some areas of its work.

Local Democracy Reporting Service