Going electric

The move to electric vehicles will accelerate over the next couple of decades as it becomes ever more difficult and expensive to run petrol cars. This will lead to new problems and significant changes to our roads and streets.

For those with nice driveways or garages there's no problem. It gets tricky in areas where people rely on on-street or communal parking.

Wiltshire Council is reviewing and re-contracting its own provision of electrical charging points. As part of the process it's giving the opportunity to town and parish councils to buy into the contract and provide facilities, which must be on land owned by one of the councils.

Whilst it's technically simple to set up points on houses for on-street electrical charging, it creates difficulties. These include obstruction of the pavement, and the need for reserved parking spaces. Currently even where residents parking zones operate it doesn't guarantee anyone a space outside their home.

Setting up chargers in communal parking areas is also possible but there may be high costs to install the electrical connections.

Facilities will continue to be on offer in council car parks, though again this may create problems as the proportion of electrical vehicles increases over coming years.

There are at the moment grants available from government for providing the infrastructure. So for anyone wishing and willing to grapple with the problems involved, now is a very good time to do it.