ELECTRIC car charging points at a Blackburn business park are only being used on average once a day, figures show.

There are two electric vehicle charging points at Euro Garages’ Frontier Park in Whitebirk ­— the development by Blackburn’s billionaire Issa brothers.

Alistair Flatman Planning provided evidence of the number of users per charging space in 12 months at Frontier Park ­— between October 2018 and September 2019 ­— which averaged 31 per month.

Euro Garages’ bosses say that the cost for the bays is £70,000 and ‘this is a considerable amount of investment for minimal use’.

It follows a planning application to install two electric vehicle charging points at Barracks Road Petrol Station, Burnley.

An application has now been submitted to vary the conditions of planning approval for the petrol station where there should have been a ‘minimum of two electric car charging points provided and available for use.’

Council planners are said to have raised the ‘issue of non-provision of two electric vehicle charging points’ at the station.

A statement on behalf of the applicant added: “We consider these figures demonstrate minimal use and that there is little demand at the present time for charging spaces at Frontier Park. Frontier Park is a much busier service area compared to Barracks Road.

“It should therefore be expected that usage of charging bays for Barracks Road to be much lower than those reported. This lack of use renders provision of charging spaces commercially unviable.”

Bosses also want to vary the conditions of the planning approval for the petrol station to open 24 hours a day.

The original application to develop the former St Teresa’s RC Church and General Havelock Inn site was approved in September 2018.

As part of that application bosses were told the station and retail shop ‘shall not be open for business apart from between 6am and 11pm on any day’ to ‘safeguard the occupiers of neighbouring properties from late night and early morning noise and disturbance’.

However, in the new application, it says the site is on a busy roundabout and the nearest houses to the forecourt are 90m to the east on opposite of Barracks Road.

It said: “Access to the service station for petrol and top up shopping has been important locally during current lockdown restrictions where access to basic foods has been essential for local communities.”