Budgeting for the Red car park in Victoria Square failed to take into account standing charges and electricity usage to a total of £130,000, with a further £18,000 shortfall caused by an inability to enforce payments on electric vehicle charging.

The alarming figures were heard at the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting last week when officers were questioned on electricity costs for the car park. 

According to the council’s agenda item, “Electricity costs for Red car park had not been budgeted for, resulting in an estimated overspend of £148,000”.

Antiquated IT systems were behind the council’s inability to make people pay for using the chargers.

Councillor Kevin Davis (Con, Heathlands) said: “What on earth is going on in that car park that’s racking up electricity charges of 148 grand? We should be looking at stopping people getting free electricity. 

He was told the money was going to the council-owned Thameswey account as part of its decentralised heat network – which ultimately provided power for electric vehicle charging points in the car park.

Officers told Cllr Davis they were aware the council was “not able to financially charge, sometimes we’re not (even) able to electrically charge”  because the “back office systems that support the EV charging system are not in place”.

Cllr Leslie Rice (LD, Heathlands) said: “Somebody is getting free charging. We talk about transparency and good management practices and we’ve turned over a new leaf, but this doesn’t look like it.

“It does not reflect well on council officers. This should be disclosed and it shouldn’t be dragged out this way in the meeting.”

However, although the figure of £148,000 was generally agreed to be the total shortfall, Woking Borough Council leader Ann-Marie Barker stepped in later in the week to correct a misunderstanding, namely that the free vehicle charging accounted for the whole figure.

“Contrary to some reports in the media, unrestricted electric vehicle [EV} charging in the Red car park costs an estimated £1,500 a month,” said Cllr Barker.

“The council has been working to enable charging and is in the process of installing software that will allow a tariff to be applied in the coming weeks. 

Historically the policy was to provide free EV charging. The policy changed but there was a delay in aligning the car park charging systems and the cost charging for EV.”

There was also concern that the near-£150,000 shortfall could have been far better employed going towards preserving threatened public services.

Cllr Rice said: “I think £150,000 is the Bustler grant that we’re talking about. There are so many different things we could do with £150,000.”

But Cllr Barker further argued that neither Bustler, nor any other service, could have been helped in this instance. She said: “This would not have proved funds for any of our excellent voluntary groups or charities in the borough.

“It would have made the budget gap less but it pales against the £175k per day we have to find to repay borrowing.”