Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Local EV owners - can we unite to do something about the new parking charges?
I’ve seen almost no chat on here or any other forum, other than things I’ve written myself, that recognises the enormous increase in cost for local residents who have electric vehicles being created by the now approved proposal of Haringey Council to charge pay and display prices when using the electric vehicle charging base locally
For anyone who hasn’t seen this in the recent consultation documents, the proposal was to charge £3.63 per hour as with all other pay and display bays when using the on street charges. This essentially doubles the price of charging when you compare it to the price per kWh and average charge speed - and makes it entirely out of line with cost of charging in other boroughs as well as unaffordable. To give an example, I often do a charge of around 40kWh, taking 5.5hours-ish. This currently costs £19 for the charge (with resident’s discount), and once the parking charges come in, will cost an additional almost £20. Ultimately costs like this will make EVs significantly more expensive to run than petrol cars and put Haringey residents off purchasing them or even forcing people to sell up (or to travel outside the borough to charge at less cost but significantly increased inconvenience).
I’ve contacted councillor Abela about my concerns and ask that she clarify the position of the council on this. I’ve also contacted Total Energies (who have taken over Source London) as one of their USPs on their website is that their users will never be charged additional parking charges - something Haringey council appear to be about to contravene. The reason for the new charge is apparently to ‘increase turnover’ on chargers (something that makes no sense given there are already overstay charges in place and ultimately residents will need to charge as much as they need to charge…). Surely the bigger issue is non-EVs parking in the charging bays (as often happens with those situated near to Green Lanes - but rarely seems to be tackled by parking wardens), or perhaps at least an issue with some spaces being used by visitors for extended stays when residents might need them) in which case why not introduce the need for a local residents permit to use the bays, as is done in parts of Hackney?)
Other EV owners - can we unite to email our local councillors and Total Energies to make a stand about this? I realise the consultation period is over (I for one opposed this change and made all these points on the consultation response form) but I just can’t quite believe Haringey Council are really planning to do something so entirely detrimental to their residents and to their apparent aims to ‘encourage’ EV ownership that they’ve stated elsewhere.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Paul on
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I believe these guys are talking to Haringey Council. I have tried to get onto the pilot scheme but to no avail. Seems like a no brainer to me.
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Permalink Reply by KatieH on
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I’m in two minds on this - has been discussed in another thread and looks like it’ll cost around £1300 (plus £90 annually), on top of the cost of installing the charger/upgrading electrics etc (£1500ish based on recent discussions in another forum) - so £2800 upfront cost with no guarantee of being able to use it on any given day if someone else is parked outside your house. If you’re charging weekly on street of course you’d break even in a year and a half with the proposed new parking charges locally, so worth it I’m sure, providing you have the flexibility to only charge when your space is available. I tend to charge at work as often as possible (free) so not sure it would be worthwhile for me.
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Wow. Didn’t realise it would cost that much to install. I’ve got a 9” angle grinder free to use if anyone fancies making their own?
In all Seriousness, I do understand why any street works have to be compliant but surely this could be done more cost-effective.
I don’t really use my car that often so occasional charging is fine and I don’t think it would be a dealbreaker plus there’s always public charges to fall back on.
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Need to get home energy suppliers in on providing this. Make it a Mayor of London backed scheme. Something has to give if the powers that be want EVs to take off.
Here in France the uptake for EVs has stagnated or gone down!
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Permalink Reply by Hugh on
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Whilst I kicked off the whole thing about daily parking charges, I was completely unaware of the issue you raise, Katie. I wish I'd known about it sooner. I hope that you're able to get some traction to change this. Let's see what Anna has to say.
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Permalink Reply by Ruben
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For PHEV cars (plug-in hybrids) the proposals are even more of a no-brainer, with most cars limited to 3.5KWh charging, which extends the charging time (3 hours of charging for 15-20 mile real-world miles).
In my case, it won't make much difference, I already made the switch from electric back to hybrid (essentially I stopped charging, I just fill petrol). This was on account of idle fees. PHEVs are mostly built around slow charging overnight and this was triggering the idle fees even while charging.
In essence, my ULEZ-compliant car now pollutes more than the non-ULEZ it replaced.
I had to change a perfectly good car, with years of life left on it, I had to spend money and make just it worse for the environment altogether.
Although, to be fair, the blame is not entirely on Haringey. They are given a target to put chargers, but no money to fit them. So they go with the company that will install them for less/free and let the consumer pick up the bill. Cynical times call for cynical measures.
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So frustrating- and as you say, totally backward. I didn’t go for a PHEV for this reason - realised it would be completely impractical without driveway charging!
While I agree that Haringey have gone with the cheapest option to then (and we’re therefore paying more for the charging), this latest suggestion to add parking charges on top seems like nothing but a cash grab. In the proposal they suggested that the aim was to ‘increase turnover’ at the charging points but clearly this is a nonsense when the rate of charging is set by the charger, and there are already significant idle fees in place…
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