Electric vehicle (EV) owners in Dublin who don’t have the benefit of private driveways might find themselves butting heads with city planning regulations if they decide to set up innovative overhead charging ‘arms’ adjacent to their homes. To date, these EV owners largely depend on shared charging facilities. Nonetheless, an overhead charging device from the Netherlands, which suspends a charging cord roughly 2.3m above the pavement from a post positioned on the owner’s premises, has begun gaining popularity in Dublin.
The head of NMD, Nigel Daly, a firm specialising in EV charging station installation and maintenance, affirmed the superior safety and tidiness of this system in comparison to running cables across the pavement. He singled out the public hazard posed by layman solutions like carving a path into the pavement for live cables or draping cords across the path, despite any protective mats, especially for elderly pedestrians reliant on walkers.
Mr. Daly disclosed that he has installed close to 50 of these overhead charging arms and defended them as risk-free additions to the street scene. They stretch to a height that doesn’t menace pedestrians, are deployed in various European countries and the UK, and he postulates they are the paramount solution for those lacking private driveways.
When probed about planning permissions necessary for these installations, Daly shifted the responsibility to homeowners to get confirmation from their local council, but couldn’t envisage any justification for denial given their comparably unobtrusive size.
However, Dublin City Council communicated that such installations do require planning permissions as they are steady fixtures on the house front, and need approval from the Council’s environment and transport departments for extensions onto public pavements. Due to the elevated risk to public liability, the council expressed a clear stance against allowing such devices to extend over the public pavement.
A resident in Clontarf said he had been using his private charging point for his electric vehicle for around half a year. He stated that the council shouldn’t have issues with this because it’s on his private property, it’s unobtrusive and in the warmer months, it is mostly concealed by plants. He further pointed that it’s neither an eyesore nor a public safety risk, but rather it’s more secure than his previous charging method, which involved a cable over the sidewalk with a rubber covering. Moreover, he couldn’t understand why there would be a demand to remove it. Despite this, the idea of seeking the necessary permissions hadn’t occurred to him.
He further pointed out that there are no public charging facilities in the vicinity of his home. “The garages advised me during my purchase that if I was unable to charge my car at home, I should reconsider buying one,” he added.
Meanwhile, a resident in Glasnevin indicated that the cost difference between refuelling at public stations and charging at home influenced his decision to set up a charging device. The domestic night rate is around 15-16 cents compared to 60-70 cents for public charging. He stated that he and his wife don’t charge their vehicle often stating that “for just €12, we’d get about 400km, and two charges would roughly be the same as a full diesel tank.”
The Glasnevin resident and his wife have been utilising the charging device for approximately two years following a consultation with the council about its installation. “We were the second in the county to have a charging arm. We sought advice from the council, but when we didn’t receive a response, we contacted a number of politicians. One councillor did revert back, but the response was not helpful,” he remarked.
The reply received from council officials in February 2022 stated that they had commissioned a “strategic study” on electric vehicle recharging, but the strategy “has yet to be fully finalised and agreed”.
The pair from Glasnevin commented that in the two-year period since the erection of their charging arm, they hadn’t received any objections. An abundance of individuals have shown up to inquire about its procurement but no grievances have been shared, they said. They added that numerous homes in Dublin, just like theirs, lack driveways even though the Government aims to eliminate ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles. They further questioned the feasibility of the Government’s target under these circumstances.
In the meantime, the city council asserted that they are setting up rapid EV charging centres throughout the city. As of now, such a centre exists in Finglas.