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EV Charging for terraced housing petition

9K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  Robinsond22000 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I'm a new member here, so first post please be gentle! :)

I am lobbying the government to agree a workable domestic street-parking EV charging system matters in terms of meaningful climate action AND hitting the Government's own 2030 EV target. There are many UK households (like ours) that don't have off-street parking. As it stands, proper charging points generally can't / won't be installed by charge-point suppliers because the Dept for Transport (DfT) and local authorities (LA) inc. my local council (Leeds City Council (LCC)) won't allow access to the installation grants or explicit permissions to put one in. It seems you can legally charge a full EV from a domestic point, but it is much, much slower, taking hours/days - impractical and unworkable at scale, putting most people off. Opening up national grants and permissions would enable more trials of the various options and country-wide roll out at scale.

I have created a petition to get this discussed in parliament and have the support of my local MP, many councilors, etc. however, the current count (31/03) is 84 - rubbish! I need likeminded people to sign and share in order to hopefully make this happen. Thanks in anticipation...

Extend Electric Vehicle (EV) charging grants to those without off-street parking - Petitions (parliament.uk)
 
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#4 ·
Already looked at several solutions inc. Ubertricity, Mole Group and others. The problem is both the local authorities dragging their heals and not approving them to run trials and the fact that none of these attract the grants that people with off-road charging get. In addition to the number of innovative solutions out there, there is also the simple approval of a cable cover. Hampshire approve this but Leeds will not for example - without this approval the fast charging installers will not install for you for fear of issues with the local authority. I have been at this for over 4 years with limited success...
 
#3 ·
Good luck with your petition. What exactly is your proposed solution? The OLEV/OZEV home charge grant is widely considered to be ineffective on this forum in doing anything other than increasing the prices to the consumer, and you need to consider the needs of other street users such as pedestrians etc. who may not mix well with a sudden increase in the quantity of street furniture and trailing cables. The model of centralised charging hubs (similar to petrol filling stations) may be a more appropriate model once there is sufficient demand to justify their wider rollout.
 
#6 ·
Thanks - there needs to be several solutions for a range of different circumstances. The Mole Group solution is a channel under the path and a charger in your front garden. This of course would not work for people without a front garden. The Ubitricity solution converts existing lamposts to be charging points, this only works if the lamposts are on the roadside of the kerb and not the other side - and so it goes on. There are too many people seeing this to a barrier to EV ownership to be ignored. For info. I agree with the idea of centralised hubs as ranges get better, charging becomes faster, etc. but I personally feel that this is a way off...??? Cheers!
 
#8 ·
Given the move to pedestrianise streets by adding pinchpoints, closing off the ends of rat-runs etc. these protrusions into the roads could accommodate "charging bollards" without a net reduction in space for pedestrians. But given the proliferation of cars and the practices of sub-dividing houses into flats, having houses of multiple occupation etc. which is further increasing the amount of vehicles there is a finite space in urban areas. Whilst Prescott's ending of the requirement to include car parking in new developments had some green kudos I still view it as a cynical nod to developers that has resulted in even less off-street parking in urban areas.
 
#12 ·
Hello! Tom from Charge My Street here, thank you for getting in touch with us.

We're aiming to make sure those in terraced housing (Or no access to a driveway) are no more than a 5-minute walk away from a community funded chargepoint.

If you know of a: Pub, Village Hall, Community Centre, Gym, B&B, Hotel, Public Car Park with public access at least overnight, please let us know by suggesting a site on our website: Host a Site | chargemystreet.co.uk

Local knowledge is key!

Tom
 
#15 ·
All of the reasons and more have been covered above to be honest. The only one that hasn’t been mentioned is the fact that most people don’t have a guaranteed space outside their house. The biggest obstacle to the trial in Oxford were “non-EV” drivers objecting the TRO to have one put in as it caused parking issues. There are a raft of issues. Our general approach will be to put in a small number of on-street where appropriate - mainly for car club opportunities and the rest focussed in localised hubs that can be used while travelling on public transport. We’ll continue to work with the private sector to put in more widespread charging hubs with higher powered chargers.
 
#19 ·
Good in principle, but it still obstructs the pavement (even if the car isn't parked on it). I'm also sure that the local "yoof" will enjoy swinging on the sprung arm ..... :devilish:
 
#22 ·
Hi all,

I'm a new member here, so first post please be gentle! :)

I am lobbying the government to agree a workable domestic street-parking EV charging system matters in terms of meaningful climate action AND hitting the Government's own 2030 EV target. There are many UK households (like ours) that don't have off-street parking. As it stands, proper charging points generally can't / won't be installed by charge-point suppliers because the Dept for Transport (DfT) and local authorities (LA) inc. my local council (Leeds City Council (LCC)) won't allow access to the installation grants or explicit permissions to put one in. It seems you can legally charge a full EV from a domestic point, but it is much, much slower, taking hours/days - impractical and unworkable at scale, putting most people off. Opening up national grants and permissions would enable more trials of the various options and country-wide roll out at scale.

I have created a petition to get this discussed in parliament and have the support of my local MP, many councilors, etc. however, the current count (31/03) is 84 - rubbish! I need likeminded people to sign and share in order to hopefully make this happen. Thanks in anticipation...

Extend Electric Vehicle (EV) charging grants to those without off-street parking - Petitions (parliament.uk)
This is where we need manufacturers/highway companies/governments/DNOs to come together and push the wireless charging. Streches of new road to be laid with wireless charging, traffic jams become charging situations (no range anxiety), charge and drive (increasing overall max miles in a journey), not have to rely on making bigger/more effcient batteries, bi directional wireless charging (some cars give to the grid, some cars take)...

I think old Elon has this in his back pocket with his smart tunnels..

Living in terrace/flats wouldnt come into it then!
 
#25 ·
If councils were more accommodating with allowing cable channels to be run across pavements it would help. It is not a big job to channel across a pavement and insert a narrow galvanised cable slot, much like the narrow cast iron drains that run across some pavements. This would allow those who are able to park outside their terraced houses to just run the cable in the slot when they need to charge, removing the trip hazard. Holland has a system that allows residents to install charging connector boxes right at the kerb, with a closed lid and the cable coming out of the edge of the kerb. They don't cover the cost of this but do allow residents to do the work with no special permissions, as long as an approved pavement box is used.

The only council I know of here that is enlightened enough to allow cables to run across pavements inside rubber cable protectors is Hampshire, and, AFAIK, there have been no reports of any issues with these. Given that road works often mean that cables are run across pavements and highways in these protectors without a problem, and as they are commonplace at festivals, location shoots and other outdoor events, I can't see any good reason for refusing to allow them.
 
#26 ·
If councils were more accommodating with allowing cable channels to be run across pavements it would help. It is not a big job to channel across a pavement and insert a narrow galvanised cable slot, much like the narrow cast iron drains that run across some pavements. This would allow those who are able to park outside their terraced houses to just run the cable in the slot when they need to charge, removing the trip hazard. Holland has a system that allows residents to install charging connector boxes right at the kerb, with a closed lid and the cable coming out of the edge of the kerb. They don't cover the cost of this but do allow residents to do the work with no special permissions, as long as an approved pavement box is used.

The only council I know of here that is enlightened enough to allow cables to run across pavements inside rubber cable protectors is Hampshire, and, AFAIK, there have been no reports of any issues with these. Given that road works often mean that cables are run across pavements and highways in these protectors without a problem, and as they are commonplace at festivals, location shoots and other outdoor events, I can't see any good reason for refusing to allow them.
Simply, is the space outside your house yours to park in? How can you guarantee that you can use that exclusively? Times that by thousands of households. The biggest opposition to on-street is opposition from other people on your road who will not like you getting something their not.
 
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