Installing charge-points for electric vehicles in the Black Country will help areas with a lack of off-street parking, chiefs say

A spokesman for Black Country Transport, which will co-ordinate the overall programme, is proposing to use such sites as part of the On-Street Residential Charge-point Scheme.

The scheme is 75 per cent funded by a grant from the Office of Zero Emission Vehicles which has stipulated that the funds can only be used for this purpose.

However, plans to site a charge-point in Jesson Road, Walsall, has angered Dave Gough, aged 73, who lives in nearby Birmingham Road.

He is appealing to local people to object to a charge-point in the area because he claims it will be a hazard to pedestrians, lead to traffic jams and take away over-spill parking spaces.

He said: "Where we live we cannot park on the road because of double yellow lines and so when visitors come or workmen we park in Jesson Road.

"This problem might only affect a few people but I am urging people to take part in a community online survey and call for the idea to be scrapped.

"The charge-point would be three feet high and with a lead across the footpath and from a health and safety point of view this would prove a hazard to pedestrians."

A spokesman for Black Country Transport said that proposed sites for charge-points had been developed using a broad set of criteria, such as width of pavement and average width of carriageway, as well as measures of likely demand.

"The installations are designed to support the delivery of targets put forward in the Black Country Transport ULEV Strategy.

"On the health and safety concern of leads across the footpath, this has been acknowledged as a concern.

"To mitigate this, the bollards would be located at the front of the footpath, closest to the road.

"On the issue of two or more cars waiting to be charged each individual charge-point bollard would be able to charge two vehicles.

"The charging power of the charge points is aimed at long periods and overnight so it is not anticipated that there would be demand at the sites for top-up charging, which could generate queues.

"This site and the others around the borough are set to be among the first to be installed in Walsall and so the aspiration is, that in the years to come, more charge points will be installed as uptake increases, ensuring supply meets demand.

"On the concern of the parking facility being taken away at this moment in time, the parking bays for electric vehicle charging will not be subject to any enforcement mechanism.

"As a result visitors to Birmingham Road would still be able to use Jesson Road as a parking facility, assuming the charge-points were not already being used by residents."