Pledge “carsockets”
"I will ask my local council to install electric points on the pavement so that people in my street can switch to electric cars but only if 10 other Londoners will do the same."
— john-paul flintoff, resident of Childs Hill, north London (contact)
Deadline to sign up by: 12th August 2005
10 people signed up
Country: United Kingdom
Postcode area: W1 (view map)
More details
Global oil supplies are running out, not least because of thirsty cars. The price of petrol has shot past £4 a gallon in some places.
Electric cars - not hybrids - run for a WHOLE YEAR on about £45 of electricity from an ordinary socket. That's the same price as a single tank of petrol.
Oh, and they don't produce harmful emissions.
The cars available from www.goingreen.co.uk have four seats and storage in the bonnet. They're as small as Smart cars and cost as little as £7,000. If you haven't heard of them that's because they don't advertise and rely on word-of-mouth.
The most amazing thing about these electric cars is that they do not incur road tax, they're in the cheapest possible insurance bracket, and they're not liable to the congestion charge. In Westminster you can park at several car parks and in pay-and-display spaces for NOTHING.
Being rather sick of paying for petrol, parking fines and the congestion charge - not to mention my worries about the environment and an impending energy crisis - I would trade in my VW Golf at once. But there's a problem.
Unless councils install sockets on the pavement for would-be buyers (as the council in Chiswick recently did) the only people who can run an electric car are the the lucky few with off-street parking.
After all, you can hardly run cables across the pavement and through the front window of your terraced house...
- Start a West Finchley community newspaper
- start a book club in Hampstead London
- pay £5 towards the campaign to put an atheist advert on the side of a London bus
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Current signatories (
= they've done it)
john-paul flintoff, the Pledge Creator, joined by:
- Leela Floyd
- Vanessa C
- Paola Traldi
- William Ryan
- alex graul
- Christina Sibley
- Hishiv Shah
- Caspar Aremi
- 1 person who did not want to give their name
- 1 person who signed up via mobile
Also I seriously doubt a car can run for a year on £45 worth of electricity! That doesn't make sense given the cost of electricity, even when you consider it is taxed a lot less than petrol.
Keep in mind too that unless the electricity used to power your car is generated from renewables such as wave, wind or solar then you will just be shifting the pollution to the power station not eliminating it altogether.
M
The sockets aren't quite the same as ordinary ones, so most plugs won't fit them: your neighbours are unlikely to unplug your car and, say, run the Hoover at your expense. You could also, I suppose, fit a secure cover over the socket...
Obviously it's impossible to give a precise cost for running the electric car over the course of a year: it depends how much you drive. The best place to find out more is on goinGreen.co.uk, where the car's manufacturers say you can drive a mile for 1p.
And you're absolutely right that domestic supplies can be highly polluting: I've already switched to Ecotricity, which derives power only from wind turbines.
Incidentally, the manufacturers also claim to carbon balance the manufacturing, shipping and first 16,000 miles.
John-Paul
I'd like to know who's paying for this, as well - currently I don't pay for next door's petrol, would I be expected to make a contribution to installing next door's electricity socket and their electric charges through my council tax?
i can see what you mean about not wanting to pay for your neighbours to drive, but i think it won't be a problem.
councils that install electric sockets have a variety of options. they could allocate a specific place outside a residents' house, with cables running electricity under pavement from the resident's own supply.
or they could install some kind of coin-operated electricity supply, so that any electric car can pay to charge up.
or as you darkly hint the council could supply 'free' electricity.
whichever option the council chooses, it can recoup the money through some kind of annual 'administrative fee'.
PS. i located the pledge in W1 because Westminster council has done so much to help the cause across London generally, and my own area hasn't matched that yet.
Glad to see your pledge was sucessful! You may be interested in this Electric Vehicle campaign group;
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/elec...
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Brian
Brilliant pledge.
There is a similar scheme in Scotland.
http://www.electrichorse.co.uk/charging_...
Good luck for the future
Well done on your efforts so far. What is the current status?
I live in a terraced sttreet in Crouch End and have just put an order in for a Gwiz. I am encountering a confused and negative response from Haringey Council with respect to my request for electric supply to the street ,(and a white painted bay). They simply don't have their eyes open and are not supplying an appropriate response. I have decided to tackle them on this issue using PR. Going Green have approved a photo shoot outside my house especially since I intend to retire an old gas guzzler which looks massive by comparison. If you have any info that will help Haringey, it would be appreciated.
All the best.
Well I've not had a fantastic response either.
The fact is that Barnet, though delighted to hear that central government will subsidise this kind of installation, is worried about the legal liability of electric sockets in public spaces. This is clearly something we need to work on.
They also don't seem inclined to muster local support. On the contrary, they're suggesting at the moment that my neighbours are likely to be unhappy about me getting a designated parking spot. I'm not so sure.
I'm not actually a churchgoer, but have had a lot of support from the local vicar, who is collecting names for me.
I'm also drumming up support from a variety of generally well meaning organisations such as the Scouts and the Women's Institute. I recommend you do the same.
I just happend on this site and got involved in reading all the comments.
It strikes me that this is all about the age old problem of the Goverment pledging to do something about CO2 emitions and general polution, and then making it impossible for people to take part in doing something about it.
Work it out, put up taxes on petrol and say it is to dicourage us from using our cars and use public transport but then do nothing to make public transport a viable option, which leads us to the conclution it is just to fill the treasuries bank account.
in responce to the person who said about just shifting the polution onto the power stations, I can't help but think that a recharge of electricity would still produce less toxins than a tank full of petrol and would give a great improvement to local air quality, especialy in London.
If the central and local goverments would make it easyer to partisipate in greener activities I am sure many more people would get involved and the govement would easily reach its promised targets for CO2 emitions reductions and we could all look forward to a cleaner brighter future for us and our children.
Good luck and Merry Christmas
Roger
Let's hope that your pledge comes to fruition & therefore it's made easier for those of us that would prefer to go green!
The biggest point, I think, is that a privately developed design could (and should) extend your own power supply. Let the council design and deploy it and you'll plug into the grid, then they've got you by the balls again and you're paying tax on your 'fuel'.
Can I feel a revolution coming or am I just angry?