Taxpayer Bung For Yarmouth EV Chargers
By Paul Homewood
h/t Russell Hicks
MP Brandon Lewis is ecstatic about the latest taxpayer bung for EVs:
https://twitter.com/BrandonLewis/status/1771137340276195506
Quite why taxpayer should pay for EV chargers is beyond me.
But what will the citizens of Great Yarmouth actually get for these millions?
Just 32 chargers, according to the local council:
https://www.great-yarmouth.gov.uk/evchargingpoints
And they are only 22 Kw chargers, so will take hours to charge up:
Yarmouth has 100,000 inhabitants, so I somehow don’t see 32 chargers being quite enough.
And for that poor guy who cannot charge at home, does Mr Lewis expect him to sit in a carpark for hours on end on the way home from work.
And heaven knows what will happen when there are a dozen cars in the queue ahead of him.
His frankly contemptuous comment about such drivers shows just how badly our politicians are detached from reality. I have little doubt that Lewis has a nice large house, with ample room for cars. And I also suspect he has a proper car to use, when he is not virtue signalling.
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Pork barrel politics writ large
This is happening all over the country taking valuable parking spaces from local residents who mostly haven’t got a ghost’s chance of ever being able to afford an electric vehicle themselves. In Exeter it is only the very wealthy who drive them, particularly the yummy mummies on the school run to the local private schools for whom owning an electric car is fast becoming the latest status symbol. Nothing against people owning them but I hope that those responsible for spending millions of pounds of tax payers money realise and accept that it is primarily the elite members of the local population who are benefitting from these chargers.
Perhaps the money would have been better spent filling potholes caused, in large part, by those EVs
In large part, no this is not correct, a fallacy that has developed. We had numerous potholes before Evs became common. The potholes are caused by lack of proper road maintenance. Surely HGVs are much more responsible for road damage than EVS. Let’s be sensible about this!
The plug-in hybrid Golf is 20% heavier that the Petrol version. Also has greater maximum torque. Tyres have reduced life by about 20% also.
So pure EVs and Hybrids are more damaging to road surfaces whether they are well maintained or neglected.
But be that as it may would the citizens of Great Yarmouth prefer six and a half million quid spent on EV chargers or pothole repairs. I know what the answer is for this citizen of Derby.
When I’ve made a poor choice in buying a car, and a couple of my 2nd hand cars have been lemons that’s my problem not taxpayers the same is true in this case. caveat emptor if you like
HGVs are not very common on lots of the roads with very bad potholes.
And those roads get even less maintenance
HGVs possibly not but 4×4, Hybrids and BEVs get onto most tarmacadamed roads. I doubt anyone could argue there aren’t more of them on every road.
If we are blaming Evs’ extra weight for potholes then we have to include the ICE vehicles that have become obese over the last few years and the proliferation of Chelsea tractors and large SUVs on our roads.
@teaef Yes all vehicles have become heavier and people are buying the largest in greater numbers. But a vehicle with a battery is the heaviest.
We could also blame poor quality repairs and surfacing materials but something has to create the initial damage after which every passing vehicle increases the problem.
OK extreme heat, cold and rain will help but the first two aren’t that common in the UK and what we get is normal in many parts of the world, and rain tends to wash away large chunks of road when it creates moving rather than still water.
Despite what councillors say it’s traffic and tardy or no repairs that cause large potholes weather is a bonus
@glenartney Agreed. And we have an ever increasing number of vehicles of all types on our roads, matched by reduced maintenance
Trucks will travel most of their miles on the A roads which may be part of the Strategic road Network which is run on a national basis by Highways England – or whatever they are called this months as it changes a lot.
Search as I might through information about private transport in the early twentieth century, nowhere can I find details of government (taxpayer) funded subsidies to establish petrol stations. When government is involved in picking winners the taxpayer is always the loser.
The EV market has collapsed, battery manufacturers are broke, we (UK) will shortly lose at least one car manufacturer; don’t worry, though, it’s all in The Plan.
And when Govt does pick a ‘winner’, it’s the kiss of death.
But the ‘winner’ knows that. They are in it to milk the subsidies, then go belly up, call in the Receiver to dodge their creditors and move on to the next taxpayer funded boondoggle.
FFS!!!!, FFS!!! 🤬
£6.5 million of OUR tax dosh to fund the virtue-signalling woke upper middle-classes…….
Im not so sure you will find many upper middle classes in Yarmouth
But they will need somewhere to charge on their days out surely? And the MP needs a charging point for his battery car too.
If we assume Great Yarmouth council area has a population of 100,000 (Although the built up area is only about 30,000), that would equate to a bill nationally of £4.3 billion pro rata!
What is the ‘resident’ going to do, sleep in his/her car while it charges up?
Hello Jean Hope you are keeping well and head above water. Perhaps you
know about this already? Why should you pay? What now about the battery
fire problems getting more and more publicity with buses , cars and
electric scooters. Why anyone would want to take the risk by buying an
EV car is beyond me. We have EV buses now in Leicester. I am waiting for
the first to catch fire. I make sure I sit near the door !!!!!
Spring has arrived I hope bringing you full hotel bookings With love
George
As an EV user myself
“But I’m not biased.”
this brings many benefits to our community
Name one.
by making it easier for residents without off-street parking to charge their vehicles
How does that help the community?
and for those considering making the switch to electric
IT’S A TRICK! DON’T BUY ONE!
caveat emptor
The population of Great Yarmouth is 100,000. To cater for the population of England and Wales we would need £3.6 billion just for chargers. Madness.
That assumes (i) these chargers are sufficient for Yarmouth, (ii) Yarmouth is average for EV density and (iii) EV take-up will not increase
I don’t think any of those are likely to be true.
I doubt government’s approach will be even as analytical as my approach. It will be he who shouts loudest.
Spot on, neither are true
Sorry, none are true
I wonder if anyone has thought to check the local power supply to see if the supply cables and sector sub-stations can handle the load?
I ask because there are chargers at motorway service stations not connected because the power to the sites is insufficient.
It is a feature in Net Zero planning, not to do any planning and consider the whole system, just the exciting part.
Hmmmm, so my taxes are paying for EV infrastructure for something I have no intention of using, despite having off-street parking. The very fact that tax payers have to fund these things shows how Luke warm to nonexistent private sector finance is with regard to funding, even 50% funding is off the table. Then we have the real kicker, four to five hours to charge, could be interesting if these are located in supermarket car parks with 2 to 3 hour parking limits.
So the moral of the story is, get an EV but ensure you either have off-street parking or a damn good book to read.
If battery cars were a good idea and better than normal cars there would be no need to waste taxpayers money on chargers or enact fascist legislation to force people to buy them. Nobody force people to move to using smart phones – they just turned out to be more useful even if the explosion of social media use is dubious.
What a smug comment from Lewis who can afford an EV. I’d ask him if thinks electricity should be subject to the same duty as petrol and diesel to make it fair for those who can’t.
He seems to have had a few queries over his expenses over the years and his official 2022 photo looks like he has been coated with mahogany wood stain. His is also one of those ‘Sirs’ who degrade the honours system by getting it for nothing anyone would notice.
Fwiw Brandon Lewis has announced he’s standing down at the next election.
This govt is spraying silly transport spending about. Here in Norwich millions is being spent on footling road schemes at the behest of a county councillor who is actually based in Great Yarmouth.
No wonder this lot keep taxes high. As this charger scheme shows, they have no discipline.
Another rat jumping from the sinking Good Ship Sushi to spend time working on their lucrative post Parliament career as opposed to fighting the election.
It’s a drop in the ocean:
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-zero-emission-vehicles
Speaking of Tax-payers paying for EV chargers they do not use; who is paying the politicians to vote for this rubbish? Is this all the legislation money can buy, or what? EVs are proving to be the bane of the auto manufacturers, with row upon row of unsold, unreliable, high warranty claim EVs piling up. Why are some people celebrating this paltry expansion of public chargers? Should we be following the $$$ ?