Millions of electric vehicle owners without a driveway are set to miss out on a rule change designed to make their lives considerably easier, after a late amendment excluded people living in conservation areas.

New legislation coming into force on October 21 will allow residents across England without off-street parking to install EV charging points and run cables beneath the pavement to connect their vehicles, without needing special planning permission. But an amendment made on September 25 means the exemption will no longer apply to households in England's 10,600 conservation areas.

Those areas are home to more than 6.8 million people, with an estimated 3.4 million lacking a driveway. Residents there can still apply to install cross-pavement charging cables, but will now need to seek specific planning permission from their local planning authority before doing so.

A government spokesman defended the move, telling The Times it was necessary to preserve the "special character" of conservation areas. "We want to support households without off-street parking to access domestic electric vehicle charging, but it's vital that we continue to protect the special character of our conservation areas," the spokesman said, adding that residents can still apply for permission, and that councils have the power to grant blanket approval across an entire area if they wish.

The change follows the government's broader announcement scrapping a major obstacle to cross-pavement EV charging, a move expected to benefit around eight million households living in terraced homes or flats. From October 21, most such households will no longer need a separate planning application to install a charger, a change estimated to save EV drivers around £40 a year.

Daniel Briggs, chief executive of Motorfinity, welcomed the scrapping of "planning red tape" as "an overdue win for fair access to EV charging." However, he warned the "bottleneck hasn't entirely vanished," since approval will now fall to local highway authorities instead. Without a national standard for safely running cables across pavements, he cautioned, the system "could create a postcode lottery of enforcement," with approval speeds varying sharply depending on location.

Not everyone sees the conservation area exemption as a setback. Commentator The EV Guy argued on Facebook that the rules were still "making charging easier for millions of people," noting that conservation areas have always faced tighter planning restrictions to protect historic character. He pointed out that residents can still apply individually, or benefit from blanket permissions granted by local councils.

Source: Liverpool Echo

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