The number of public electric vehicle charging points in Cumberland has risen by a fifth over the past year, new figures show.

It comes as Vauxhall, who analysed the data, said more must be done to meet the rising demand for electric cars.

Figures from the Department for Transport show there were 189 publicly available electric vehicle charging devices in Cumberland as of October, including 34 rapid chargers.

Overall, it is up 20 per cent from 157 charging devices in October of 2022.

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Across the UK, there were nearly 49,220 publicly available chargers as of October – a 42 per cent jump from 2022. Of them, 8,908 were rapid chargers.

The availability of chargers varied across the UK, with the highest in London where there were 193 chargers per 100,000 people. On the other end of the scale, Northern Ireland had just 23 per 100,000 people.

In the North West, there were 42 electric vehicle chargers per 100,000 people.