..... Isn't £63m basically nothing when it comes to national infrastructure?
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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£63 million for cutting into pavements so cables can cross them! I buy cable ramps for £8 per meter that will fit a couple of EV cables.
Best use of money is reducing the cost of running electric cars:
- lower electricity costs on EV tariffs
- lower or remove road tax for all EV owners
- Ensuring EV cars are easy and cheap to repair to lower insurance costs.
- Ensure battery recycling is performed in the UK to reclaim the rare earth metals.
- Removing insurance premium tax for EVs
I’m getting really fed up with the government going from the Tories stuffing public money into their own pockets, to Labour taking half that amount and just setting fire to it.
Those cable ramp things are obnoxious and terrible for anyone using the pavement at best they are a trip hazard for normal pavement users at worst they are down right dangerous / make the pavement unusable to people with disabilities. Cables should not be going across a public pavement!
All valid points. I would counterpoint by suggesting people are generally not walking on residential streets between 8pm and 8am, when people are charging their cars at home.
Cable ramps can be quite unobtrusive (the one I have here is just 20mm high with a really shallow ramp either side), HSE recommended, and even lower than most dropped kerbs, how about we find out where they are seen as a problem and fix those instances?
I guess that depends where you live, living in a city there are people walking around my area at all times of day and night and in lower light these obstructions become even more of a hazard. Even outside of the hours you suggest, half of the year it is pretty dark from as early as 3pm. If kids are out before that time going to school on their scooters and skateboards as well they may not have the ability to recognise the danger these things pose and think they could roll over them which is going to end badly 8 out of 10 times where the wheels jam and stop but their body carries on going.
I will admit that what you have described sounds better than a lot of the massive ones I see around where I live but the problem is the majority of people aren't considerate at all and think that it is their god given right to slap a cable with a massive hump over it and not consider that not everyone can navigate that hump.
I agree that there can be some consideration given from both sides of this argument to make sure that people are able to charge their cars as they are choosing a more environmentally friendly method of transport but also not at the expense of everyone using the footpaths and thus we come back around to making proper infrastructure so that paths are unobstructed and people could charge their cars without the cable from their house.
I do appreciate that you have at least thought about your application and have got something that is as shallow as possible unlike a lot of people near to me however :D
It follows my ethos of “not being an arsehole*” *where possible. We have a driveway but I have sorted out some EV cabling and ramps for friends and family.
There's one I walk past on one of my routes. It's there every week between midday and 1pm and it feels higher than 22mm and the ramp definitely isn't shallow.
Same as, one I was past regularly is at least 100mm high, if not a bit more and where they have the cable stretched from their house to the car the cable is often lifting up either or both ends of it to almost make it float.
I fucking hate it with a passion xD
Your council will probably have words with you if you have a permanent over the pavement solution. Have proper permanent gullys for charging cables goes someway to improving access to cheap charging for EV owners that don't have driveways. That is by far the cheapest way to charge. My overnight charging is about 7p per kWh (~4-5 miles of range).
The road tax discounts are nice but not sustainable in the long term. EVs are still road users and need to contribute to the cost of upkeep. The fairest solution would be a usage based approach but their are privacy issues implementing such a solution.
I hadn't noticed a massive difference in insurance. Is the premium you mention down to a government tax or just differences from the insurers?
Battery recycling is certainly worthwhile. Even if you don't break then down a lot of EV batteries can have a good second life as domestic supply batteries.
I have the same overnight tariff, with a cheap 2.4kw granny charger giving ~60 miles per night on the cheap tariff.
Regarding the council, we are talking about overnight on residential streets not exactly high levels of foot traffic, and if the council did receive complaints then that’s a good opportunity for some targeted funding solving a problem rather than a perceived problem.
I agree removal of road tax is not sustainable long term but it was reintroduced too quickly, and discourages 2nd hand EV buyers.
Electricity has 5% VAT at home and 20% on public chargers. If the off street parking solutions are classed as “public” charging then the price per KWh is going to be at a minimum 30p due to the marginal cost pricing.
Electric cars just cost more to insure than an equivalent ICE car, just because any question of battery integrity results in a total loss claim.
I'm pretty sure it's still private charging. I know there are some kerbside charging solutions that are a public/private mix so discounted for residents but I don't think we need a lot of public charging infrastructure on normal streets. The only time I use public chargers is when doing long journeys and I stop off at motorway services which benefit from the 50kw+ CCS charging while I have a pee and grab a coffee.
I would hope in time that private charging gullys would become a standard part of street furniture when streets are renovated and redone. It's going to take awhile before the majority of cars on the road have transitioned to electric.
Not sure what to do about the insurance premium issue. I would hope some of the ADAS improvements in new cars will eventually reduce the number of battery integrity threatening prangs.
I agree with the less need for public charging. We will probably end up public charging once or twice a year (while on staycation).
The way I see it is homes with driveways are sorted, homes with street parking within 20-30m can get by with a cable ramp, and digging a cable trench can be done in extreme cases.
What needs sorting are blocks of flats, maybe the incentive/legislation should be applied to the landlords and building owners to ensure their buildings are suitable for the electric age.
Allocated parking with charging linked to the flat, and unallocated parking with access to zero-profit charging.
Starmer loves a middle class bribe instead of sorting the fucking economy
Nothing revolutionary about this.
Massive for-profit private interests being catered to by the government instead of public transit for the public.
And before the point gets argued like last time I brought it up. Yes in some scenarios cars can't be replaced, but the majority of transport required by the majority of people is better served via bus, tram, train, or bike. I'm not saying abolish cars, I'm saying they don't need massive government subsidy, other modes of transport do.