Will people ever be able to charge electric vehicles in York’s terraced streets?

Challenges remain for providing York terraced streets without off street parking with electric vehicle charging points, the council’s transport boss said.

Cllr Pete Kilbane, who is also City of York Council’s deputy leader, said the council continues to investigate how the charging points could be installed in the streets but admitted that factors stand in the way.

“Policy wise we’re not saying never,” he told a meeting of the council’s economy and place scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, April 25.

Ahead of the meeting a report was prepared on Gul-e charging points – where cables are connected from homes to vehicles under the pavement – to be included as part of the council’s next public charging strategy to be published in 2025.

But potential flaws with using the system in York – particularly in terraced housing streets – were identified.

The report explains that Gul-e charging points have been trialled by Oxford City Council.

But, it says, the authority confirmed the system cannot be used when the property fronts directly onto a pavement, adding: “This means that the system cannot be deployed in many of the target terrace street areas of York. Unfortunately this currently severely limits the usefulness of gully systems in York.”

Cllr Kilbane said further issues could arise if people who live in terraced streets installed a charging point at their property but found someone else parked outside their home.

City of York Council’s transport boss, Cllr Pete Kilbane (Image: Supplied)

He said, as the road is a public highway, people can park in any space they chose.

But he said people could be tempted to run cables further down the road to their car if someone is parked outside their home.

“If you don’t get to park outside your house to charge your car up to do a long journey you’re going to be very tempted to run that cable down that highway and plug your car in – I think that’s human nature,” he added.

The cost of installing a Gul-e system for a resident is about £1,000 – £500 to £600 for the system and another £500 for installation.

What are the current EV charging options for residents in terraced streets?

The report says it is “not possible” to provide public charging infrastructure on terraced streets in York “due to the nature of the built environment” in the city.

Instead, the council aims to have ‘fast’ 7kW electric vehicle charging point within a 10 minute walk of terraced housing streets and faster ‘rapid’ and ‘ultra rapid’ charging facilities within a 10 minute drive.

The report says the council has also looked at installing electric vehicle chargers on lamp posts but adds: “Unfortunately in many cases the target streets have no streetlamp columns.

“In any event even if streetlamp columns were available, in common with all charging options there would still be no space to create charging bays that do not sit within the running lane of the roadway, and therefore no cable management within the roadway. As a result this is not an option.”