Progress with Project 5: Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicle charge-points in Felton:
Information for residents
For instructions to use the charge-points, please go here.
WHAT
•The County Council is installing charge-points for electric vehicles (EVs) on streets in towns and villages across Northumberland, as part of its Climate Action Plan (www.northumberland.gov.uk/Climate-Change.aspx).
•This is in line with the government’s aim to ban new petrol and diesel cars in nine years’ time.
WHY
• The government and the County Council realise that occupiers of (mainly terraced) housing without a garage or driveway will be unable to drive EVs as they will have nowhere to recharge their batteries. The installation of on-street public charge- points will enable them to do so.
WHERE
• The Council has selected six towns and villages as a pilot scheme, and Felton is one of them.
• Two dual charge-points have been installed at the kerbside along the length of road outside Felton Surgery.
Qs and As
Will I be unable to park in my usual space?
• Of course, none of us has the exclusive right to park directly outside our house, even though most people prefer to do so. Already, from time to time, we cannot because other vehicles are parked there.
• Drivers keep theirs car on average for 9 years, so it is unlikely that there will be a rapid increase in EV ownership by occupiers of the 50 or so terraced houses on Main Street. Consequently, the charge-points might not be used frequently in the near future.
• Also, the road space beside the charge-points has not been marked out for the exclusive use of EVs, so you could continue to park there.
• The provision of charge-points should not increase the total number of cars needing to be parked on Main Street. It might even be that casual parking by visitors of non-electric cars will be reduced when drivers see the charge-points. However, as EV ownership rises, use of the charge-points will obviously increase.
Are there any benefits to households who do not drive an EV?
• The resale value and attractiveness of properties with nearby charge-points is likely to be enhanced, at least a little, as they would be ‘future-proofed’. Also, of course, if you, a member of your household, or the next occupier acquires an EV, they will have a charge-point nearby.
If I acquired an EV, how could I use a charge-point and how much would it cost?
• Electricity is currently charged at 50 pence per kilowatt hour - the same rate as for other Northumberland County Council charge-points. Payment would be by debit or credit card, registered in the Connected Kerb app.
In case you’re interested in the maths:
According to the consumer magazine Which? the average CO2 tailpipe emissions of a new car in 2019 were 128 grams per kilometre. An average car travels 11,840 km per year (RAC). So the average car emits 128 x 11,840 grams = about 1.5 million grams or 1.5 tonnes of CO2. Assuming that there are about 750 cars in Felton and Thirston Parishes (about one per household), they would emit a total of 1.5 x 750 = 1,125 tonnes of CO2 per year.
1 tonne of CO2 occupies the same volume as a cube with sides of 8 metres. 1,125 cubes piled on top of each other would stretch from sea level to beyond the summit of Everest (every year).
This is a tiny proportion of the world’s emissions, and yet every tonne worsens the climate emergency.