Lynne Jones and husband Steve

DOZENS of electric car charging points have not been working for several months – leaving drivers regretting buying eco-friendly vehicles.

Lynne Jones, who bought a hybrid car in 2019, said she was one of five Hampstead neighbours who were struggling to charge their electric vehicle close to home.

Chargers in Tanza Road, Parliament Hill and Nassington Road have not worked since January and the problem is replicated in areas across Camden. The council said it is working to fix the problem as “a priority”.

But Ms Jones said she felt “let down on all counts”, adding: “You could drive around for hours and then you’ve got to walk all the way home. I would definitely go back and swap the car back to a petrol car tomorrow if I could, because of the hassle.”

Ms Jones said she had to pay £200 for a lead to connect to their hybrid car to the lamppost charger. Calvin Po, a climate strategist who ran as a Conservative candidate for South Hampstead in the recent election, said: “Charging infrastructure is a huge issue for people.

It’s stopping them from replacing their fossil fuel-based car.” Using an online map showing where the points are located and which ones are working, he said he calculated that 90 per cent of street chargers in South Hampstead are out of service.

In 2019, Camden had the third highest proportion of electric vehicles in its total private vehicle stock, after Westminster and Barnet.

But in total Camden has 492 on-street chargers whereas Westminster has more than 1,000.

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “We want to support residents to choose more sustainable modes of transport and we are working to install around 33 more fast-charge points over the next few months to help address demand.

“Finding suitable locations where lamp columns are compatible with charge points has been challenging, and for safety reasons we had to relocate a number of charge points earlier this year. “We are working to resolve this as a priority.”