'Spontaneous combustion' fears put paid to electric vehicle charging points at Preston's new cinema and leisure complex

Members of Preston City Council’s planning committee expressed their reservations over the change to the blueprint for the “Animate” scheme in the city centre, on the former site of the indoor market.

The long-awaited £41m project was given the go-ahead by the same committee last March, when a condition was imposed that required 18 of the 164 spaces in the proposed basement car park to be reserved for electric vehicles.

However, the city authority – which is behind the ambitious scheme – was forced to seek permission for that demand to be dropped after being advised by fire engineers during the detailed phase of the design process that locating charging points in a below-ground car park “is not compliant with fire safety regulations”.

A meeting of the committee heard that the facility will be “future-proofed” by installing the necessary cabling to enable chargers to be fitted at a later date if those regulations are eventually revised.

Town hall planning officer James Mercer said that if “newer methods of charging are safer than [those] we currently have…it means we won’t have to dig up the car park to put in all the infrastructure”.

However, committee member John Potter said he was “really annoyed” that the council had found itself in the position it has – especially given that a fifth of all new cars being sold are now electric.

“The biggest block to new [electric] cars is now a lack of infrastructure in exactly these sorts of places,” Cllr Potter said.

“I have not seen any evidence anywhere that suggests that electric vehicles are more likely to spontaneously combust. I understand the risk…[as] lithium batteries [run] very hot and can be very dangerous.

“But I haven’t seen any evidence to say electric vehicle charging adds a particularly extra risk.”

Cllr Potter acknowledged that council officers were in “a bind”, but predicted that “we’re going to take them out just to put them back in again – all because of some change in building regulations”.

The committee was told that new nationwide construction rules governing electric vehicle charging infrastructure in new buildings had also necessitated the change to the city’s forthcoming leisure attraction – which will include restaurants, a bowling alley and games outlet.

Known as “approved document S”, the policy is actually intended to ensure that chargers – or at least the cabling that has to be put in place to install them subsequently – are incorporated within new developments and any substantial renovations to existing buildings so as to facilitate the accelerating shift towards electric vehicles.

However, for undercover car parks like the one that will be built beneath Animate, the rules state that “the requirement to install electric vehicle charge points should be met by installing [them] in associated parking spaces that are not within a covered car park”.

The document adds that if not enough such spaces are available, ”cable routes” should be installed within the covered facility – as the city council has proposed in the event that fire regulations change in future.

Committee member Maxwell Green asked whether there was “any potential anywhere else” in the city centre for electric vehicle charging capacity, but was advised that it would be a matter for the authority to decide separately to the revised Animate application.

Fellow member Cllr Carol Henshaw said that it was “such a shame” that the planned chargers were having to be jettisoned – at least for now – but Cllr Javed Iqbal concluded that the council did not have “much choice [but] to go with the advice” of fire safety experts.

The government last year announced that it intends to end the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders revealed last July that 14 percent of vehicle registrations during the first half of 2022 were fully battery-powered, while plug-in hybrid vehicles had achieved a six percent share of the UK motor market.

The cinema scheme’s car park, which will be accessed from Ringway with an exit onto Tenterfield Street, will have over 400 fewer spaces than the old multi-storey serving the previous indoor market. However, Ormskirk Road will be opened up to allow easy access to the bus station car park, enabling that facility to act as an overflow.

The city council-owned, four-floor development is expected to create around 140 jobs and generate £7m a year for the local economy. At the time planning permission was granted last spring, it was estimated that the project would be completed some time in 2024.

A 2016 version of the scheme had proposed a multi-storey, rather than basement, car park – but that idea was later ditched in favour of a design that councillors were told last year was “far less aggressive in terms of height”.

Confirmed outlets for the site so far include an eight-screen Arc Cinema and a 16-lane Hollywood Bowl. Late last year, it was announced that Italian restaurant chain Zizzi, Latin American bar and restaurant Las Iguanas and world buffet operator Cosmo would all be taking on units in the complex.

Street food will also form a key part of the scheme, which will see a new public space developed in between the complex and the covered market hall – bridging the height gap between the two – and featuring granite steps, planting and formal seating for the restaurants and informal places for people to gather.