I have a ChargePlace Scotland RFID card, the £20 a year is reasonable enough even though I only visit Scotland occasionally, and the same card will also work on the CYC chargers that can still be found working occasionally in certain locations (there’s a nice location with a CYC charger at the top of Reigate Hill, and it was working when I last tried it in July – £1.80 + 20p per kW/h though, but that’s fine as it’s a 50kW rapid and only just off the M25 J8).
Many of the old CYC chargers in England have been abandoned though, they were bought with a fixed length contract by councils using government funding, & when the councils found other things to spend money on they simply abandoned these chargers. Now so many more people are buying EVs suddenly these gaps in the network are being noticed.
Back to the ChargePoint Scotland chargers, they have opened up Scotland to EVs, don’t expect any of them to remain free forever though. What really matters here is that people are being encouraged to switch to EVs because you can drive all the way to Durness (and find the charger doesn’t work but the ones in Tongue & Scourie are good). If ChargePoint Scotland hadn’t been set up then the usual rapid charger suppliers would never have opened up so far north as they’re currently uneconomic, but now Instavolt & Ionity, and the supermarkets are cottoning on that ChargePlace Scotland has generated enough EV sales to make it work.