Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

It’s now been over a year since the new charging points on Fairfax and Allison were announced, and last time I looked they still weren’t up and running. Meanwhile, there are no plans for any additional charging points on the ladder, and Haringey remains the only one of all the surrounding boroughs not to have started working with Ubitricity to introduce lamp-post charging.

Is anyone else starting to feel very frustrated at the absolute lack of progress here - especially when compared to other boroughs who have done so much more? 

Tags for Forum Posts: electirc vehicle charging points, electric cars

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It’s the main reason that we have yet to go electric. 

Fairfax ones are working & being used! Have been for a while now. (Can’t speak for Alison) 

Hooray! Actually I went and checked Allison today and they’re up and running too. Still a (very expensive) drop in the ocean though…

That’s good news, but as you say it’s a drop in the ocean. The network of charging points needs to be expanded to many many times what it currently is.

Lamp post charging is available for the posh people west of the borough. There are some near Ally Pally. I emailed the council about introducing it in Harringay, but got a message back saying that they will only be considered if demand increases, so a bit of a vicious circle situation 

I emailed the council a while back. The short of it: they are using Source London because they cover 100% of the capital costs of installation, whereas the lampost installations need to be partially funded by the council.

So this option ticks the right box and does not hit the budget.

I think the lamposts were installed at the beginning (ubitricity/char.gy) but the funding model for Source London has probably phased them out. Islington has a lot of ubitricity but lately all I can see are new Source London installations too.

Functionally, it's another story. I was using Source London charging points on Fairfax 2-3 times per week on my PHEV but I ended up having to stop. The car has only a small battery and when it goes on the cell-stabilisation phase of the charge it triggers a slow-charge mode for a while. This is picked up by the charger as a "finished charge" and Source London starts punishing you 4p/minute of idle fees.

With the council not offering solutions to home charging for those of us without driveways (not even allowing cable protectors), it had to be back-to-petrol for me. I guess that for a BEV this won't be a problem.

When I have charged on ubitricity or char.gy the experience has been much better. Idle fees are after a much longer period and better suited for small-battery/slow-charging vehicles. With most lamposts being converted to LED lighting we should have the capacity now on all roads with flats/terraces without drives.

Let's give it another year or three.

Yes - I can understand why the Borough uses Source London from a financial point of view, but it makes no sense from any other. And other boroughs don’t seem to have made the same decision which adds to the frustration…

This is one of the key factors in my opposition to borough-wide LTNs: the council is quite ready to make life far more difficult for residents, disabled people and bus users by closing side streets and forcing yet more traffic onto already at-capacity boundary roads, but has produced no comprehensive plan for charging points as an incentive to residents to go electric or evidence of any intention to electrify all their own fleet vehicles. As always, it’s all stick and no carrot: telling everyone to walk or cycle and get rid of petrol engines is fine, but there have to be alternatives in place first, including charging points and far better public transport. When TfL is savaging the bus network (albeit at the Treasury’s insistence), just replacing a few council park vehicles with cargo bikes while not installing charging points across the whole borough simply doesn’t cut it. If the council wants to change people’s behaviour, they have to lead from the front, not kick from behind.

I also found out that there is no penalty for ICE cars parking in EV spaces. The Rutland Gardens charge points are always occupied by ICE cars visiting the Turkish restaurants 

That’s ridiculous!

Interesting Pat, thanks - as the LBH website definitely says EV parking is free in 'normal' parking bays I asked Ringo (parking app providers for LBH) in May who said:

"I can confirm we have no parking locations shown as free parking for any electric vehicles in the Haringey area."

Has anyone tried it?

I’ve done it - it’s pay and display bays only (not shared use), free for whatever period parking is allowed for.

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