[Simon Hewison]

Spotted today:

a Bolloré 'bluecity' rental car with a parking penalty ticket on a Source London Charge Point.

This was in London Borough of Barnet, at a charge point where Barnet Council have a maximum stay restriction of 4 hours clearly signed at the charging bays.

Of course, a car sharing service is going to exceed that, unless it's really popular. I wonder if it will get cancelled, whether Bluecity will just pay it regardless, or whether the maximum stay restrictions will be lifted. The parking attendant was clearly doing precisely as the regulations required them to do. Bolloré have said that despite the fact that Source London and BlueCity are the same parent company, that they don't get any preferential treatment whatsoever. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

 

[Simon Hewison]

 

[Stephen Pirrie]

A BlueCity rental lives in my local bay too. It’s always there.

 

[Bond James]

Hello,
I'm actually quite furious about this 'deal' - those charge points (at least in Camden) are supposed to be public infrastructure, if I'd just left my car, hogging the charger for 4 days, as a paying member of Source London - I'd be charged £256 for the pleasure, however since Source London and Blue City are owned by the same company Blue City cars are allowed to use those (public!) charge points as free parking - preventing every other EV in the area to charge up there! This is outrageous!

10 days ago one of their shitty 'cars' was parked for 4 days! (see picture) before it was eventually moved. Now another one is parked, when will it be removed who knows? It's a SINGLE bay!
in both cases Camden's parking wardens gave those cars a parking ticket but since they are in cahoots iwth Camden I bet they don't pay them...

This is super cynical and abusive of limited public resources. When you call Source London they tell you that in such a case its your job to call them and ask them (kindly) to remove their car from there, last time it took 4 days. If this was in a private car park I wouldn't care (and won't be a member either) but this is premium public real estate that's handed over to a private company to ^*%&&$ actual EV owners!

 

[Ian Clark]

I am asking Southwark council to give me details of their deal with Source London especially in regards to how much the chargers are being paid with public money and how much councillors knew about the deal before they inked their contracts.

It seems that the auto press already knew Bollores plans to fill half the bays with BlueCity vehicles. "The group says that the percentage of charging bays occupied by Bluecity cars will never exceed 50%.". New Bluecity electric car sharing scheme to launch in February | Autocar

However, Bluecity cars have begun to disappear from the bays I habitually use and pass by of late. I wonder if the collapse of the system in Paris has changed their business plan? Autolib cars to be taken off Paris streets at midnight

 

[Bond James]

Thank you, 'no more than 50% of bays' is a joke when my local bay has a single space in it, occupied by a 'blue city car'...

I wonder if there's a way for me to find from Camden council what happened with those PCNs their wardens left on those cars - if they got cancelled that further proof of corruption or at least some dodgy dealing between the councils and a private company.

I tried to ask the Blue city person on the support line if the car that was parked for 4 days in early November (and clearly had a PCN as can be seen in the photo) - was charged for it and he checked on his computer but said he sees nothing, this can of course be a coincidence.

I'll be writing to my council member, if this is correct this is a cynical abuse of public space/infrastructure - if the government wants us to drive greener cars - for the very least they should allow fair not corrupt public infrastructure, especially in cities!