Building a West Yorkshire EV Charging Network Through Partnership

The LEVI Project is a collaborative regional project operating across the West Yorkshire Combined Authority and its five partner councils to deliver accessible, affordable and extensive public EV charging networks across the region. This webinar was held on 10 June 2026.

The UK Government has committed to net zero emissions by 2050, with the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles ending by 2035. The zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate published on 28 September 2023 requires 80% of new cars and 70% of new vans sold in Great Britain to be zero emission by 2030, increasing to 100% by 2035. With advancements in electric vehicle technology, availability of and access to reliable charging infrastructure is recognised as a critical barrier to the adoption of electric vehicles. Therefore, it is vital to ensure a comprehensive and accessible network is established to facilitate the smooth transition to electric vehicles for a cleaner and greener West Yorkshire.

The challenge to meet our carbon targets for the transport sector is significant. Transport is the highest emitting sector in the region, accounting for 44% of all CO2 emitted; dominated by road transport which accounts for 89% of transport related emissions in West Yorkshire. 

The LEVI project aims to create affordable, accessible and commercially successful EV charging networks across West Yorkshire. The project is funded by an award of £15,826,000 of pilot and capital funding awarded to WYCA from the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles. To ensure that this capital could be deployed in the most efficient manner whilst also encouraging the highest level of private sector investment possible a regional project was created.

This included creating a regional project board with representatives from all councils and WYCA, conducting regional procurement exercises and setting delivery and contract management at the council level. This has involved creating new regional and council governance structures, to provide both governance and promote collaborative working.

Hosted by Dean Kilner

Speakers:

Jack Adams - Net Zero Project Manager, Bradford Metropolitan District Council
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Jack is an experienced project professional who started in the events industry but changed area into the built environment and climate change. I am currently working on sustainable infrastructure projects in the Bradford District, with the aim of producing economic growth and reducing negative climate and health impacts.

Kirsty Townend - Project Manager, West Yorkshire Combined Authority
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Kirsty is an experienced Project Manager who focused on partnership projects. Kirsty is the lead project manager for the combined authority on the regional LEVI Project and also manages the combined authority’s Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Framework. Kirsty has worked across numerous sectors during her career, which has included roles at leading museum trusts, private sector service companies and local government.

Jack and Kirsty have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing.
The slides on Slideshare are now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference. Unfortunately the webinar was not recorded on this occasion.

Questions raised during the recording have been reviewed and are now published with the speaker responses.