Grove Park Part Of New Eco Car Experiment

Hounslow Council backs new electric car club as charge points are installed

Hounslow Council has announced its backing for the Blue City electric car project which has opened in the Borough. And two electric vehicle charging points and parking bays have recently been installed at Spencer Road, outside the Station House pub.

The plan is part of Source London - the public network of EV charging points in London, to increase electric car and car club use to combat air pollution. Other sites in the borough include Brentford and Isleworth and one in Hounslow.

An impression of how the plan would look - Hounslow Council

The launch of a new car club, Blue-City – which uses vehicles that are 100 per cent electric – took place last week in Brentford at a local school.

Residents can get free annual membership and 10 hours’ worth of free driving by using the code, Earlybird 10.

Residents can hire the vehicles, for 17 pence a minute. They are located at Source London charge points across the borough and drivers can collect cars from one location and then leave it in another. There is no requirement to return it to where you picked it up.

Another Council proposal to tackle air pollution is to charge resident parking permits based on emissions.

Residents with the lowest emission vehicles could get free permits, which replaces the 50 per cent discount they currently receive. There is also a possible £50 surcharge on diesel vehicles. A consultation runs until 12 midnight on Friday 24 July on the issue of the diesel surcharge.

Councillor Amrit Mann, Deputy Leader of Hounslow Council, said: “The Blue-City car club is a forward-thinking initiative in becoming more environmentally friendly and it will benefit our residents as it goes towards improving air quality.

“Air pollution is increasingly recognised as a major cause of serious illnesses. As a Council, we are looking at proposals to amend some existing permit prices to reflect the impact that different type of vehicles have on the air we breathe in.

“We want to reduce pollution and its effects and work towards improving the health of our residents and the air quality in our borough both now and for the future.

Last year the Grove Park Group said they would welcome the new policy on electric car charging points as long as it was well thought out.

"As an increase in electric car ownership is closely linked with the availability of charge points, seemingly, the more the better. The proposed Spencer Road location makes sense particularly if the ‘Grove Park Shops Piazza’ project comes to fruition. Electric car owners could use the local shops, café and pub whilst their car charges.

"What we would like to see in the future is more lamppost located charge points, particularly in areas in Grove Park where home owners would have difficulty accessing one based in their own home, e.g. flats and houses with no off street parking, obviating the need to have cables crossing the public pavement.

"A second advantage of lamppost location is that it limits the addition of more street clutter, an important consideration in the Grove Park conservation area."

The Council says that this plan is to address associated issues of poor air quality, most of which is emitted from tail pipes of diesel and petrol vehicles.

In Hounslow, the entire borough is a declared Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) and is legally required under the Environment Act 1995 to prepare and implement measures to address this issue. One such measure is to encourage the uptake of ultra-low emission vehicles and installation of the charging infrastructure required, which is supported by policies at national, London, and borough-level.

Jonathan Knight of the GPG said last year that with regard to Hounslow Council’s Air Quality Management Area initiative, the vast majority of car produced emissions in Grove Park were from non resident vehicles passing through the area rather than from locally based vehicles. As Londoners, locals tend to travel into town using public transport rather than using cars.

"To make an impact on air quality in Grove Park, and Chiswick in general, this through traffic needs to be encouraged to use electric cars or public transport. On that point, the soonest introduction of electric buses, refuse trucks, council maintenance vehicles and supermarket delivery vans would have a significant impact on air quality in Hounslow."

July 2, 2017