An application (20/00338/B) by Manx Utilities would see electric charging points and two new car parking spaces at the island’s police headquarters.

The authority wants to create two new spaces by concreting part of the grass area on Dukes Avenue, Douglas, in front of the police station and use two existing spaces for the charging points.

The two charging points form part of Manx Utilities’ commitment to install 150 units across the island over the next five years in order to allow for the electrification of transport.

However, there is nothing in the application to suggest that the police will be replacing their fossil fuel cars and vans with electric vehicles in the immediate future.

If approved, the new spaces would be created using a six metre by five metre strip of land adjacent to the existing parking spaces outside the front of the police station on the Grandstand side of Dukes Avenue.

As the proposed site is nearly three metres from the foliage which lines the road, Manx Utilities say the application will not disturb any of the existing trees.

The authority added that it has ’adequate’ electrical capacity available on site for the charging units.

Parking is known to be a problem for the police, particularly since the headquarters was extended.

At a Douglas Council meeting in January, leader David Christian noted that officers and civilian staff have ’taken over’ the paddock area since the custody block was extended and the force lost parking spaces.

He said: ’If we create a public car parking then we are just giving in to the people who decided to park there.

’We should have made the Department of Home Affairs pay for police parking since there is no room for their vehicles.’