- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council are set to discuss the implementation of a cross-pavement charging trial later this month, following similar trials that are taking place right across the UK.
- If the trial is approved, this could help make electric vehicles more accessible for residents without private off-street parking, within the council’s population of over 400,000 residents.
- The scheme would allow residents to apply for a pavement gully to be installed outside their property, allowing EVs to be charged on domestic energy at a significantly lower cost than the public charging network.
Could BCP Council be about to benefit from cross-pavement EV charging?
If the trial is approved, BCP Council will join a growing proportion of the UK able to benefit from cross-pavement charging. Residents will need to pay for the installation of both the pavement gully and their own home charger, but this can be made cheaper through the central government’s Electric vehicle chargepoint grant, which grants up to £350 towards the cost of home chargepoint installation.
According to Kerbo Charge, one of the industry leaders within the pavement charging space, its own system is live in over 30 local authorities across the UK. Some of these remain in the trial phase, but local authorities such as Cornwall, Milton Keynes, and Northumberland have made it a permanently available option for their EV-driving residents.
Whilst charging gully solutions open up EV accessibility to an even wider cohort of drivers, charging up an EV still remains an issue for people in multi-story buildings such as flats. With that in mind, BCP Council will continue to roll out public charging infrastructure within its area, ensuring that no driver is left behind in the transition to EV.
Councillor Andy Hadley, portfolio holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy at BCP Council, commented:
“Charging gullies could make owning an electric vehicle a more attractive option for residents that do not have off-street parking. This is exactly the sort of innovative solution that residents have been asking us to provide and is an important part of our wider EV strategy.
In addition to making car at-home charging more accessible, we are committed to rolling out more convenient public charging points. We currently have 110 charge points across BCP car parks and are looking to create an additional 500 charge points in the next five years; we are keen that these measures do not take space or create trip hazard for pedestrians.”
