DRIVERS who hog the new ultra fast chargers set to be built at a Park&Ride site could be fined.

Plans for a hyper hub - featuring eight ultra rapid electric car chargers and five fast dual chargers - to be built at Poppleton Bar Park&Ride have been given the go-ahead.

And City of York Council’s planning committee heard that options for “policing” the problem of people parking in the charging bays and leaving their vehicle there all day are being looked at by the project team.

Stuart Andrews, who is managing the scheme for the council, said the hyper hub will be designed to feel like a traditional petrol station.

He added: “We’re looking at policing this [behaviour] and one way would be that we grant people a certain amount of time, once their vehicle has finished charging, to leave - perhaps notifying them by text message.

“Holding on to these parking bays is a problem but we feel the way it’s laid out again as a service station will discourage that kind of behaviour.

“People who are commuting will have plenty of availability to plug in to a seven kilowatt charger, where they can leave their car all day.”

The team may also look at installing a detector in the surface of the charging space to monitor how long people leave their cars there.

The site is in the Green Belt but councillors were told special circumstances exist meaning the development should be allowed - such as creating much-needed charging infrastructure for people who may want to buy low emission cars.

Mr Andrews added: “Part of the goal of hyper hubs is to drive behavioural change and encourage people to purchase electric vehicles.

“This site is designed to operate in a similar way to a conventional petrol station and offering that that comfort and a facility to stay dry [under a canopy] while you’re charging your vehicle we felt was quite important.”