Councillors' concerns for neighbourhood 'conflict' over funding boost for on-street EV charging points

Councillors have raised concerns about possible neighbourhood ‘conflict’ and ‘trip hazards’ as the East Midlands Combined County Authority endorsed plans to secure over £900,000 of Government funding to help roll out on-street electric vehicle charging points under pavements for those who do not have driveways.

The East Midlands Combined County Authority’s Transport and Digital Connectivity Committee endorsed a submission for £945,000 of Government funding for an Electric Vehicle Pavement Channels Grant Programme during a meeting at Derbyshire’s County Hall, in Matlock, on October 30th.

Alex Linton, EMCCA’s Head of Transport Investment, told the meeting: “This paper is to advise the committee of an opportunity to submit to the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles for a new programme to support the adoption of electric vehicles.

“It’s focussed on providing grants to residents who do not currently have off-street parking but who either do own or want to own an electric vehicle and have the opportunity to charge that at home.

“That enables them to take advantage of using cheaper domestic electricity supply rather than the more costly public charges that people in that situation would currently need to do.”

Mr Linton explained the programme aims to encourage more people to own EVs by being able to apply for grants for approved on-street electric vehicle charging points and to prevent illegal and hazardous trailing of cables from people’s homes and across pavements.

However, Derbyshire County Cllr Carol Wood, who supported the initiative, raised concerns about the potential for conflict between neighbours if on-street parking is limited and she also hopes that any installations will involve sunken gullies and not create lumps that would pose ‘trip hazards’.

She said: “There is no such thing, in my ward at least, as a terrace row where there is not competition for parking so I am curious to see how this will work.

“I hope it does not introduce conflict between neighbours where a point is installed and someone is in their parking place, and just to note, we will only be supporting sunk gullies and not ones with a hump that might cause a trip hazard or a problem for any wheeled apparatus going down the street.”

Ashfield District Cllr Matt Relf also raised concerns about whether residents would be able to guarantee being able to park in the right place for the cable channel to reach their cars with competition for parking places and he hopes there will be fairness in geographical spread for any roll-out. 

Nottinghamshire County Cllr Mick Barton said: “I think it is a valid point. Fighting over a plug on the street.”

High Peak Borough Cllr Anthony McKeown has welcomed the scheme but he too stressed there does need to be a discussion about the rules and set-up of cables concerning the crossing of grass verges.

He said: “There needs to be a conversation about rules and set-up about crossing grass verges in terms of feedback from officers and feedback from residents in terms of where people are trying to get these sort of facilities in themselves.

“The general feedback there is – particularly from the highways authority around it – is we keep on getting told there will be a review around that to make more opportunities available and I hope this additional funding would help any such review and opportunities for people to access this kind of scheme.”

Mr Linton said it is anticipated the relevant councils’ highways authorities will deliver installations and the issue of possible conflict will have been relevant to information drawn from a Nottinghamshire County Council pilot which will help to guide the scheme but there are no details at this stage of how it will be delivered on the ground.

He stressed site assessments will be carried out and there will be no guarantees that any particular site can be supported for an installation until it has been fully considered.

Mr Linton said: “There may be instances where an assessment defines that is not going to be possible and there is not a guarantee that an application can be supported but if it cannot be done there will be a clear response to the applicant to explain why it is not going to be possible to do that on their behalf.”

He added: “We are not creating an entirely new industry here. It is a new opportunity to grow something that somebody has been doing for us so while there is no way of guaranteeing that if you install a cable outside your house you will be able to park there because we are not implementing parking policies as part of this as well. It’s something we will be sensitive to as part of the assessment.”

The £945,000 funding from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles Electric Vehicles Pavement Channel Grant programme’s £25m pot will enable highway authorities in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire to support people who do not have off-street parking for electric vehicle so they can charge their vehicles safely at the roadside using domestic electricity supply.

It will allow local authorities to provide grants to residents for the installation of cross pavement ingressed or covered channels within and under pavements which can temporarily accommodate cables from a householder’s property to charge electric vehicles at the kerbside.

Derbyshire County, Derby City, Nottinghamshire County and Nottingham City councils who have been responsible for delivering the region’s existing electric vehicle programmes have been working with EMCCA and they have jointly produced this latest proposal which has now been endorsed.

The funding, once finalised by the Government, is to be used to support the capital costs of installing pavement channels at a cost of up to a maximum of £1,200 per channel and it should become available during the 2025-26 financial year but there will be no time limitation on usage of the allocation.

Once the scheme is given the final go-ahead, members of the public will be invited to submit grant applications to their relevant highways authorities which will be assessed with certain criteria needing to be met and EMCCA will assess locations to make sure they are suitable.

The scheme can only be used to buy and install eligible EV pavement channels and residents must have or commit to installing an EV chargepoint which must be connected to a domestic energy supply to enable the residents to access domestic charging rates.

Mr Linton said the highways authority will assess locations for installations to make sure they are suitable and while the roll-out is going to be driven by public interest EMCCA does not know exactly where new on-street EV charging points will be installed at this stage.

But EMCCA is hoping that once public interest has been expressed it aims to coordinate roll-out programmes in relevant communities.

Nottingham City Cllr Linda Woodings, who recognised there is a demand in Nottingham for the scheme, said: “I think it’s a no-brainer that we should get this funding that the Government has made available. It’s brand new funding specifically for this purpose.”

Cllr Woodings added that she hopes the scheme’s on-street EV charging points will be rolled out in areas that need it most where people cannot afford a huge frontage at their properties.

Derby City Cllr Carmel Swan welcomed the ‘financial inclusion’ for those who may not otherwise be able to consider switching to electric vehicles.

She said: “I think this is a really exciting programme and since the announcement was made already we are seeing lots of emails coming through with people who do want to make that switch but practically it’s impossible at the moment.”