Confusion over placements of electric charging points in Northampton streets

Residents in Far Cotton are voicing their concerns over electric vehicle parking places, which are being proposed in already congested streets in the town.

Eight charging areas are in the pipeline for Far Cotton and Delapre, including Euston Road, Oxford Street, three in St Leonards Road and Rothersthorpe Road, Delapre Street and Towcester Road some of which are terraced streets with shops on.

Councillor Julie Davenport (Ind, Delapre and Briar Hill) said: "I think a lot of people have lost faith in the council. They are thinking they are doing a consultation but they will go ahead and do it anyway. If they did listen to people who said it's congested, it would be brilliant.

"It's caused a lot of upset because there are houses in multiple occupancy, a lot of people who work at One Angel Square park in Far Cotton and people getting on the train. There's a bus station outside Delapre Abbey entrance and people take their suitcases out their cars and park up for a week and go on their holidays. People can't even park in their own street."

Councillor Jason Smithers, county council cabinet member for Highways and Place, said: “As e-charging grows in popularity, more and more people are moving to electric vehicles. In addition to this, central government will be banning the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from the year 2040, or earlier.

“We, therefore, have a responsibility to provide residents with the means to successfully embrace this transition towards electric vehicles, and one way we are delivering this is through the introduction of e-charging points in the local area.

“This project aims to make electric vehicle use more convenient and accessible, and also plays an important role in helping us achieve our environmental targets: meeting our corporate aim of reducing energy use and emissions as outlined in our Climate Change Strategy and Climate Emergency Declaration.

“Feedback from the public is carefully considered and we are consulting with residents on the best locations for the e-charging points, based on proximity and convenience. For any alternative location suggestions, we would encourage people to use our request an electric vehicle chargepoint facility.“

Stuart Millican has lived in Far Cotton for 22 years. He said St Leonards Road used to be a place where you could go shopping and come back and park easily, but now motorists don't have the same luxury.

He added the electronic charging points will only make matters worse for residents wanting to park their vehicles: "As far as I'm aware, no one down here has an electric car at the moment, they are so expensive.

"I'm not against the idea, I definitley understand, but we are not going to see those cars in Far Cotton, it's not a poor area but it's not well off area.

"The parking is an absolute nightmare. If everyone had one car it would be okay but there are two or three cars per house and houses of multiple occupancy. If you go out in the morning and come back an hour later you can't park again."