Allowing resident led EV-charging and bike storage initiatives in conservation areas

The UK is undergoing a transport revolution, with local government policy playing a key role in the switch to EVs. The Mayor of London’s 2030 electric vehicle infrastructure strategy estimates up to 60,000 EV charging points will be needed by the start of the next decade. Existing EV owners rely mostly on home and workplace charging. Charging cars at home overnight using a dedicated charge point is generally cheaper and more convenient and ensures that EVs can play a full part in our future. For these reasons, today the majority (around 80%) of all electric car charging happens at home. Two-thirds of households in London do not have access to off-street parking, discouraging the uptake of EVs, a key element in the strategy for tackling local emissions and poor air quality. The London Mayor’s strategy has identified a lack of available land as one the biggest obstacles.

We live in a South London conservation area. Our Borough is 29 out of 33 London Boroughs for EV ownership. There are roughly 250 conventional cars on our road but not one EV. Estimates are that one off-street charge point is required per 15 cars, so this assumes 16 or so will be required just on our road by 2030. There is no on street EV-charging provision on our road, and none is planned. We applied for off-street EV charging in our empty front garden, to provide shared charging amenity using CoCharge App so other people on our road could also charge EVs. The scheme followed the Council guidelines for outside of a conservation area. 70% of the garden area was for diverse bee-friendly greenery. It was rejected and we are now taking the council to the Planning Inspectorate. We have also been informed that it is not possible to create a charging point up stand and that it is illegal under Highways Act part IX to have any trailing cables over the footway. We requested an on-street charging point over a year ago but have been given no timeline. We have cancelled our EV. 

If you happen to live in a conservation area, chances are that when you try for some form of resident led EV charging, or even bike storage solution for your front garden, it will be resisted by the local conservation society and local planners. In our experience they will dig out as many irrelevant planning policies they can find to resist.

These people are engaged in preservation, not conservation. They want to preserve conservation areas as they were in the late 20th Century, failing to manage climate change and making life difficult through their muddled thinking. The irony is that they often use ‘harm’ as a word to stop planning applications, yet rarely take enforcement actions against developments, such as new off-street spaces, where owners have just gone on ahead and ignored them.

Fortunately, not all conservation societies think like that. Some are for adapting to the needs of the 21st Century, enabling positive change. The benefits of EV charging and Net Zero far out way the any perceived harm planners and conservation societies choose to see.