Plug in Suffolk frequently asked questions

Suffolk County Council is currently running a 12 month trial of cross-pavement solutions to allow a cable to be run from a home charger through a channel in the pavement to a parked car on the road. The trial is full, and further information will be made available once the trial is completed.

In the meantime, Suffolk County Council has been allocated funding under the Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund, and we are now developing plans to significantly increase the rollout of public charge points across Suffolk. A key element of this project will include creating public on-street charge points for residents who rely on on-street parking.

Not every street that is suggested will be suitable to receive a chargepoint. This could be for various reasons, including:

• availability of a suitable power supply
• highway constraints
• insufficient physical space e.g. pavement width
• planning constraints.

There is also a limited amount of funding available. We will investigate every suggestion made, but we cannot guarantee that every site suggested will receive a chargepoint.

Residents without a driveway or garage face challenges when it comes to charging an EV - in some cases it is just not possible, and it is unsafe and hazardous to run cables across pavements. Along with inconvenient access to public charging, these are common reasons that people give for not choosing an EV.

However, the funding will start to provide solutions to these issues, with opportunities to develop:

• kerbside charging points
• community charging hubs
• car park charging points
• fast and rapid charging point infrastructure improvements.

Our aim is for all the chargepoints installed at 7kW and above to have a contactless feature, which will enable you to pay for your charge with a bank card, as you do for purchasing items in a shop.

Suffolk County Council was grateful to receive hundreds of suggestions of streets where residents would like on-street electric vehicle chargepoints to be installed. Those suggestions played a key role in helping us to identify areas for installation, and are being investigated for meeting Highways constraints and connection viability.

Once all investigations have been completed, the chargepoint locations will be added to our Plug in Suffolk map.