Street EV charging in the UK is a postcode lottery as drivers face opposition from parliament | Electric, hybrid and low-emission vehicles

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said charger trenches to connect electric cars parked on the street would help save money for drivers. But millions of households in the UK may be unable to use the simple technology because it still doesn’t allow charging cables to cross the road.

Despite the government promising to cut bureaucracy and make ditching easier, more than 20 local authorities appear to be opposed.

This includes the councils of Kent, Leicester and Worcestershire, but most of the resistance is in London, including Westminster and Hackney. London has the highest number of electric cars in the UK and the highest number of households without off-street parking.

Charging your electric vehicle (EV) via domestic energy supply is much more attractive as the VAT rate on electricity used is 5% compared to 20% when using public chargers. But 9.3 million households lack access to off-street parking, making it difficult to access cheaper energy, according to consulting firm Field Dynamics.

Gully manufacturers, including Kerbo Charge, Gul-e, Pavecross and ACO, claim that their products allow you to connect cables from your home to cars parked on the street without the risk of tripping. But several councils said they had concerns about safety, parking and the aesthetics of cutting the waterway into pavement.

“We will still need approval from local authorities before each installation,” said Michael Goulden, co-founder of Kerbo Charge. The company is working with 48 local authorities who are allowing or trialling ditches, but the situation varies from council to council.

“We are increasingly streamlining with local authorities to make this more efficient,” Goulden added. Of the 83 local authorities or combined authorities in England counted by the government, almost a fifth have not applied for funding allocated for cross-packing solutions or have not received their full allocation.

“Many boroughs within inner London have no current plans to pave their crossings,” Mr Goulden said. “With this amendment to the law, [removing the need for planning permission] “There will be no change for residents in the near future.”

The reasons given by the council usually boil down to concerns about who will look after it and who will be liable if someone trips over the ditch and gets hurt. Ensuring a parking space right outside your home poses another problem.

Leicester City Council has said many terraced house owners find it impossible to park in front of their properties at all times and local authorities are concerned about accessibility issues. Kent County Council said it was also concerned about the risk of electric shock if the cable was damaged. Worcestershire County Council said it would “not allow highways to be broken or damaged to install EV charger connections”. However, cable protection ramps across the pavement will be permitted.

Ealing City Council, west London, said it was “particularly concerned about accessibility and safety issues for the elderly, disabled, wheelchair users and people with visual impairments”, adding that it was focusing on installing public chargers on lampposts.

Westminster Council, in central London, said ditches do not work in dense urban areas. Hackney City Council said it wanted to “minimize disruption on the streets and prioritize vulnerable road users such as people walking or driving private vehicles” by keeping chargers off pavements and increasing the rollout of public chargers.

The government’s removal of the need for planning permission will help speed up the process, but installers will still need a street work permit, which is controlled by the council.

“They all have different processes,” said Adam Dolphin, director of Gul-e. “I wouldn’t say they are intentional barriers. They are just looking at how the process works.”

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