The Isle of Wight Council has been slammed for installing an electric charging point in a residential area of East Cowes, taking away parking spaces, where there is already a ‘struggle’ to find one.
In a letter to Adelaide Grove residents, the council announced the installation of the twin-socket electric vehicle charge point — 1 of 10 being placed around the Island — but admitted it may not have a high demand to start with. Due to that, it was only initially only allocating 1 parking space for only electric vehicle charging. The council said it would monitor the use of the charging point and ‘when demand requires it’ would allocate a second parking space.
While welcoming the charging point, East Cowes town councillor Cameron Palin, said he was disappointed they were not consulted about the location – a reoccurring theme across a number of different schemes on the Island recently, including Ryde Interchange.
An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson has said town and parish councils were consulted in 2021 with the offer of putting a charging point in their area.
Councillor Palin said Adelaide Grove was ‘not the correct location’, as residents already struggle to park and this now means they lose yet another space. Other areas in the town such as York Avenue, would have been more suitable said Cllr Palin.
If residents park in the allocated bay without the need for charging, they could receive a penalty charge notice.
Cllr Palin said there must be a move to green transport but rather than ‘imposing’ the point on residents, the council should work with residents and local councillors to find out where they are needed.
The charging point, however, was placed according to resident demand, a council spokesperson said, following an Island-wide survey in 2018 undertaken to understand potential demand. The survey asked people whether they had access to off-street parking and if they would be interested in purchasing an electric vehicle in the next year if there was access to a charger.
Looking at the feedback, the spokesperson said, along with specific requests from residents and detailed technical investigations, potential locations were identified.
The funding for the on-street charge point project has come from the Office for Zero-Emission Vehicles, as part of the council’s climate change strategy.
Will be likely vandalised within a week. The kids are bored.
The kids will soon have plenty to do when the council turn the island into a concrete jungle
All that concrete to clime up and swing about.
Whuuuups sorry i was thinking about trees in the jungle. What a wally i am.
Just goes to show the council can get work done fast when being sneaky.
Can’t have been island roads fitting it or it would have taken a month and temporary trafic lights
Perhaps residents need to cut down the amount of cars per household then?
Yes, we need free public transport so we don’t need a car leaving space for the people who really need a car. Currently cheaper to own and run a car than to use the bus to get a few miles up the road. We don’t just need to get rid of fossil fuel cars, we need to get rid of cars.
I have yet to see a charger for ” mobility scooter”
You can get an adaptor to allow you to charge from a car charger. Maybe do some searching on google before making daft comments.
Pity the council can’t afford to keep local bus services running yet they can afford to put in electric car charging points.
I live in Adelaide Grove and I never received a survey regarding this issue. The only letter I received from the council was after they had installed the electric charging point. The Council knew that residents would object to loosing parking spaces on a road that is over burdened with residential car parking so decided to do it in an underhanded way. Why was it not placed on York Avenue where there is plenty of space. How are they going to. Issue parking tickets to the motorists who will park there as it is the only available space, when we don’t see a traffic warden from one week to the next. Another ill thought out plan by our IOW Council.
Probably got a traffic warden on stand by !!!!!
That’s why they put it there so they can dish out the parking tickets to raise more revenue for there pension pot electric cars etc etc ……
As for placing it in a more convenient position that would require thought and planning…..
Say no more !!!!!!
You do see traffic wardens about ,I work in the town different roads different times and the wardens are ready to pounce on us trying to do work for people . But totally agree why Adelaide Grove poor decision albeit sneaky but that’s the council all over
by the recreation ground York Avenue would of been better decision
any one who can afford electric cars wouldn’t of been in anyone’s way charging there .
come on council sort it
It appears that someone in authority isn’t doing their job properly and making sure the residents are properly canvased in the first instance.
I dread them putting one in my street as we are all terraced and NO driveways.
If I had an electric car would I plug into a socket in the street for the feral’s to mess with it NO!
Waste of space & time.
If they are so green what is used to generate the power in first place?
Renewable energy. As of 2020, renewables produced 40.2% of electricity in the UK
In this so-called survey, just how many residents in Adelaide Grove own electric cars?
Logic would say that a much better location for it would have been on York Avenue for general use instead of ‘hiding it away’…
This as much as anything else probably sums up the problem with electric vehicles today – the lack of any coherent planning or infrastructure. A single, random charging point in a random street in Cowes is pointless. People in EVs aren’t going to be cruising the streets looking for the one charging point in the town. If we’re going to do this properly we either need whole streets of charging points or a single location in each town with multiple bays. In just 8 years time the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles will be banned and yet we have no infrastructure in place to replace them.
“and yet we have no infrastructure in place to replace them”
There are 42,000 charging points across the UK in over 15,500 locations. That sounds like infrastructure to me.
I think at this stage locating a charging point in a street without electric cars is a little premature.
A simple lamp post conversion without sacrificing a parking space would have been far more appropriate.