'People have to go to the top of the town to Carlow,' upgrade of e-car charging points

Up to 60 public electric car charging points are to be installed in Laois.

The senior planner of Laois County Council Angela McEvoy confirmed the eco-friendly measure at the December Council meeting.

"There will be 20 or 30 in Portlaoise and 30 in the county," she said.

Cllr Ben Brennan had complained that there are no electric car charging points in Graiguecullen.

"We need charging points for electric cars. People have to go to the top of the town to Carlow, we need to put them in for the sake of the environment," he said.

Portlaoise is getting charging points as part of the project to turn it into Ireland's first low carbon town.

The Council will be investing an estimated €2.7million over the next three years in the project.

The aim of the Low Carbon Town is to address the dominance of cars in the town centre and to improved pedestrians' experience.

This will be achieved by diverting a lot of traffic by using the South Circular Road and reconfiguring existing traffic flows throughout the town centre.

The eight charge points in Laois at present are as follows: 3 Portlaoise, 2 Portarlington, 1 Abbeyleix, 1 Mountmellick, 1 Ballacolla.