Published: 01 June 1999
Electrifying
Kate Hoey MP was involved for five years with her constituents’ challenging campaign to get an on-street charging post for his electric car.
Most people feel that public speaking is a nerve-racking experience, although it is one that most politicians get used to. We also get used to working under pressure. For me the pressure of driving Dr. Simon Robert’s electric car for the first time after such a long battle to achieve his on-street electric charging point was greater than most things I have experienced as an MP. Simon mentioned to me recently that when he first contacted me in March of 1995 as his Member of Parliament about his idea to be able to use and charge an electric car at his home, I said that I hoped things would be up and running by Christmas. That turned out to be a rather ambitious time-scale, and if he knew then that his dreams would not become a reality for another four years I am not sure if either he or I would have been so enthusiastic! It has been a long struggle for Simon and his family with many obstacles along the way and a mass of bureaucracy to overcome, but that just makes me even more pleased that he finally achieved such fantastic results. I was very proud to be able to welcome the first on-street charging point in the whole country in my constituency.
The file on this case is certainly one of the fattest that I have. Simon’s problems centred around the bureaucracy and existing rules and regulations - none of which catered for the idea of an electric car. It still had the reputation as some sort of new age, futuristic, idealistic pipe dream. My assistance to Simon mainly involved trying to break through these barriers and help to change people’s attitudes so that they could accept the possibility of the idea working practically if everyone worked together. One of the most frustrating things was how many small obstacles were continually emerging. Every time we managed to overcome one barrier another one would emerge from nowhere. Lambeth Council and London Electricity received most of my correspondence. We perhaps should have realised how things were going to go with the very first problem that Simon contacted me about. He wanted to park the car ‘off-street’ and charge it up in his own front garden. Lambeth Council had no problem in him concreting the area over for this like many of the other houses in the street. But, and it proved to be a big but, the family lives in a Conservation Area and necessary removal of the railings to access the parking area was firmly blocked by English Heritage - even though not all houses had them and the Roberts’ railings were imitation ones installed within the last twenty years. Charging a vehicle by leaving the cable lying across the pavement was illegal and so the idea of an on-street charging post next to the car on the road was developed. One of the unexpected details of this plan was the issue concerning obstruction to the public footpath. The charging post had to be set a certain distance away from the kerb (like trees and lamppost are) to allow for the overlap of vehicles when drawing up to the kerb - but what to do with the cable that had to reach even the small distance from the car to the charging post? The solution was an ingenious little flap fitted flush with the pavement that allowed the cable to go underneath. I have heard stories about how developments for space programmes resulted in all sorts of new inventions used in every day life - I was beginning to think that this project would do the same. I am sure that we all learned more about the minutiae of planning regulations over the years than we ever expected existed. However the imagination and interest of London Electricity and Lambeth Council went a long way to overcoming many of the seemingly endless and previously insurmountable problems.
The ground breaking development that was eventually achieved is especially important as the Government is now seriously looking at ways of encouraging the manufacture and use of cleaner, quieter and more fuel-efficient vehicles and part of the ‘Cleaner Vehicle Task Force’ is in particular examining alternative fuels such as electricity. I understand that Simon received support from the Powershift programme which is another important initiative which will hopefully be developed further. I very much hope that by seeing this success more people will be encouraged to try alternative and more environmentally-friendly modes of transport for themselves. Unfortunately there isn’t an electric Mini which is my favourite car but as I said at the launch if there is one made I am ready to buy! MPs can only do so much and we spend a lot of our time helping people who are unable to help themselves. Simon and his family were different. They were single minded. They put a huge amount of personal time and effort into this project. Over the years his enthusiasm does not seem to have wavered (to me at least) and without his own tenacious pursuit of this I think that the idea would definitely have folded by that first Christmas.
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