Merton Council is proceeding with caution regarding pavement electric vehicle (EV) charging solutions, citing safety and cost concerns. During a meeting of the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel on Tuesday, councillors reviewed the draft Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure (EVCI) Strategy and discussed the council's approach to facilitating EV charging across the borough.
The draft EVCI strategy outlines Merton's vision for integrating EVs into a sustainable transport network, guided by four principles: comprehensive, sustainable, affordable, and accessible. The strategy focuses on the council's role in providing public charging facilities and facilitating EV charging at homes and private sites. The council aims to support the provision of slow to standard power (up to 7kw) residential charging infrastructure to serve the 49% of residents that do not have access to their own off-street parking. The council reports that it currently has one public chargepoint for every five EVs in the borough.
A key point of discussion was the council's stance on cross-pavement charging solutions, such as cable channels. The council has adopted a cautious approach to not permit cross pavement charging solutions at the current time
due to concerns about safety, liability, and maintenance costs.
According to the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee_EV Strategy, the council is worried that significant uncertainty and risk remains in relation to the safety, liability and maintenance costs of permitting cross pavement solutions at the current time, particularly in relation to highways safety and maintenance. The council is concerned about electrical safety and the potential risk of vehicles being charged on the highway from domestic electrical supply in proximity to other electrical equipment including lamp columns, utility cabinets and other charging vehicles. The council also notes that widespread areas of Merton have shallow telecoms utilities installed under footways that are at risk of being damaged by the installation of cable channels, with further cost and liability implications.
Although cable channels are designed to reduce trip hazard, there remains a risk that cable gullies may become faulty or result in deterioration of the surrounding footway leading to maintenance and liability issues for the council. There could also be complications in relation to the reinstatement of gullies following resurfacing and utilities works that require excavation of the footway and it is not certain who would be liable for the costs of reinstatement or repair of any damage to the gully unit and the budget implications for the Council.
The council has made significant progress in delivering a comprehensive network of 860 residential electric vehicle charging points (EVCPs).
The panel also reviewed officer responses to recommendations from the scrutiny task group review of electric vehicle charging. These recommendations included:
- Lobbying the government for fairer VAT charging between home and on-street EV charging.
- Ensuring clear signage for dedicated EV bays.
- Leading by example by installing EV charging points in council car parks and premises.
- Reviewing parking and permit charges for EVs in 2026.
- Encouraging housing associations to maximise EV charging provision for residents. The council will
promote the use of any available government grants for EVCP install to owners of residential properties with off street parking and will work with social housing providers including Clarion, to support the provision of EVCPs in their private car parks
. - Ensuring dedicated EV charging units are sympathetic to the environment.
Progress in achieving the objectives of the strategy will be monitored through measuring the following outcomes on an annual basis:
- Number of publicly available chargepoints (Slow/standard up to 7kw, Fast, Rapid +50kw)
- Number of dedicated EV only parking bays for lamp column EVCPs
- Number of Government charging grants issued
- Number of registered vehicles in borough
- Number of registered plug-in vehicles in borough(cars and vans)
- Percentage of total vehicles that are plug-in vehicles
The Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee_EV Strategy report presented three options for the panel's consideration:
- Approve the draft EVI strategy and action plan as proposed.
- Recommend revisions or additions to the strategy.
- Reject the proposed EV strategy.
The preferred option is to recommend that Cabinet approve the draft Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (EVI) strategy as currently proposed.