Grove Park Part Of Chiswick Eco Car Experiment

Hounslow Council plans to install electric car parking and charging points

Hounslow Council is planning to introduce three electric vehicle charging points and parking bays in two streets of Grove Park, namely Spencer Road, outside the Station House pub and in Staveley Gardens.

The Council is currently consulting on the plan which is part of Source London - the public network of EV charging points in London. Other sites in the borough include two in Brentford and Isleworth and one in Hounslow.

An impression of how the plan would look - Hounslow Council

The charge points are primarily to be used as a top-up facility for Electric Vehicle users who are out and about rather than as their primary source of charging, with users being charged by the hour.

The Grove Park Group, which represents residents in the area said it welcomed public electric car charging point installation as long as it is part of a well thought out strategy.

"As an increase in electric car ownership is closely linked with the availability of charge points, seemingly, the more the better. The proposed Spencer Road location makes sense particularly if the ‘Grove Park Shops Piazza’ project comes to fruition. Electric car owners could use the local shops, café and pub whilst their car charges.

"What we would like to see in the future is more lamppost located charge points, particularly in areas in Grove Park where home owners would have difficulty accessing one based in their own home, e.g. flats and houses with no off street parking, obviating the need to have cables crossing the public pavement.

"A second advantage of lamppost location is that it limits the addition of more street clutter, an important consideration in the Grove Park conservation area."

The Council says that this plan is to address associated issues of poor air quality, most of which is emitted from tail pipes of diesel and petrol vehicles.

In Hounslow, the entire borough is a declared Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and is legally required under the Environment Act 1995 to prepare and implement measures to address this issue. One such measure is to encourage the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles and installation of the charging infrastructure required, which is supported by policies at national, London, and borough-level.

Jonathan Knight of the GPG said that with regard to Hounslow Council’s Air Quality Management Area initiative, the vast majority of car produced emissions in Grove Park were from non resident vehicles passing through the area rather than from locally based vehicles. As Londoners, locals tend to travel into town using public transport rather than using cars.

"To make an impact on air quality in Grove Park, and Chiswick in general, this through traffic needs to be encouraged to use electric cars or public transport. On that point, the soonest introduction of electric buses, refuse trucks, council maintenance vehicles and supermarket delivery vans would have a significant impact on air quality in Hounslow."

If you wish to comment you can email transportplanning@hounslow.gov.uk before July 29th.

July 21, 2016