Home charging
If you wish to charge your electric vehicle at home and you do not have a driveway, you must do so by using a suitable cable protector and following the guidelines set out below.
Charging/charging cable
Any resident using cables and cable protectors across the footway must comply with the following guidance:
charging vehicles must be parked legally and safely, without causing obstruction to vehicular traffic or pedestrians. This includes not being parked in violation of existing traffic restrictions and parking as prescribed by the Highway Code
charging cables must not run across the carriageway and must remain entirely on the footway/verge for as long as they are in use
cables must only be run across the highway for as long as a vehicle is charging. When not in use, cables and cable protectors must be removed from the public highway and stored elsewhere
vehicles must be parked as close to the property’s electrical outlet as possible to reduce the total cable length required across the public highway. A cable must not exceed 10 metres
while charging, your vehicle must be parked at least 2.5 metres away from electric equipment which is not part of your home's electric, including lampposts, electric cabinets or other charging vehicles – this is to mitigate the chance of simultaneous contact. While, if all electrics are in good working order, the risk is minimal, it's considered good practice to limit the chance of this issue
cables and cable protectors must not hang over or on top of street furniture, lighting columns, trees, walls, hedges or other obstacles
cables must not be fed out of buildings above ground level to provide charging
charging cables must not be run across any public footway that has a high volumes of users – examples include roads in shopping precincts or in district centres, on roads with entrances to education facilities during weekdays, and roads with rail stations, health facilities and leisure facilities such as leisure centres
If you live on major A-roads, we ask that you charge only while parked in designated parking bays. This is due to the heavy volume of traffic these roads receive.
Cable protector
The suitable cable protector must:
be less than 32mm deep with a gradient no steeper than one in 5
be flush with the footway surface and cover the full width of the footway
be high contrasting (for example yellow stripes on black footway surface) and visible at all times of use, including at night. The use of a cable protector for on-street charging where there are no streetlights must not be carried out after dark
have a non-slip texture and be laid perpendicular to the direction of pedestrian traffic
Cable protectors such as these can be purchased from hardware outlet stores or online.
This permission to charge an electric vehicle does not grant a formal right to park outside your property or residence. If you cannot legally or safely park outside your property, you'll be unable to charge your electric vehicle in this way, and we would not permit home charging in any other way than as prescribed in the guidance above.
This guidance only applies to properties without off-road parking, such as a driveway.
If you cannot charge your vehicle in line with the above, we recommend making use of public charging network, charging your vehicle as part of your journey or at your destination.
Planning permission for home chargers
Our policy for home charging does not grant permission for the works to install an electric vehicle charger onto your property; it only grants permission to run a cable and cable protector across the highway to use a charger if you do not have access to a driveway or off-road parking facility.
Installing a dedicated electric vehicle charger to your property may require planning permission. If you're looking to install this type of equipment, you should seek planning advice from a qualified planning advisor before undertaking any works for an installation of this nature.
Electrical safety
Please consider the safety of your charging method. While it's possible to use a standard 3 pin plug socket to charge your car, we strongly recommend that you speak to a qualified electrician to check your electrics and, if necessary, about putting in a more suitable charging socket if you're going to regularly charge a vehicle at home.
Future schemes
The policy is currently subject to a 3-year trial period, which will be assessed within that period for any modifications that are required.
We do not permit the private installation of electric vehicle chargers on the highway. This currently includes solutions such as gully chargers.
We're collecting information about where public electric vehicle chargers are needed. If you'd like to express your interest in the introduction of public on-street electric vehicle charging near you, email transportation@stockport.gov.uk.