..... Isn't £63m basically nothing when it comes to national infrastructure?
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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£63 million for cutting into pavements so cables can cross them! I buy cable ramps for £8 per meter that will fit a couple of EV cables.
Best use of money is reducing the cost of running electric cars:
- lower electricity costs on EV tariffs
- lower or remove road tax for all EV owners
- Ensuring EV cars are easy and cheap to repair to lower insurance costs.
- Ensure battery recycling is performed in the UK to reclaim the rare earth metals.
- Removing insurance premium tax for EVs
I’m getting really fed up with the government going from the Tories stuffing public money into their own pockets, to Labour taking half that amount and just setting fire to it.
Those cable ramp things are obnoxious and terrible for anyone using the pavement at best they are a trip hazard for normal pavement users at worst they are down right dangerous / make the pavement unusable to people with disabilities. Cables should not be going across a public pavement!
All valid points. I would counterpoint by suggesting people are generally not walking on residential streets between 8pm and 8am, when people are charging their cars at home.
Cable ramps can be quite unobtrusive (the one I have here is just 20mm high with a really shallow ramp either side), HSE recommended, and even lower than most dropped kerbs, how about we find out where they are seen as a problem and fix those instances?
I guess that depends where you live, living in a city there are people walking around my area at all times of day and night and in lower light these obstructions become even more of a hazard. Even outside of the hours you suggest, half of the year it is pretty dark from as early as 3pm. If kids are out before that time going to school on their scooters and skateboards as well they may not have the ability to recognise the danger these things pose and think they could roll over them which is going to end badly 8 out of 10 times where the wheels jam and stop but their body carries on going.
I will admit that what you have described sounds better than a lot of the massive ones I see around where I live but the problem is the majority of people aren't considerate at all and think that it is their god given right to slap a cable with a massive hump over it and not consider that not everyone can navigate that hump.
I agree that there can be some consideration given from both sides of this argument to make sure that people are able to charge their cars as they are choosing a more environmentally friendly method of transport but also not at the expense of everyone using the footpaths and thus we come back around to making proper infrastructure so that paths are unobstructed and people could charge their cars without the cable from their house.
I do appreciate that you have at least thought about your application and have got something that is as shallow as possible unlike a lot of people near to me however :D
It follows my ethos of “not being an arsehole*” *where possible. We have a driveway but I have sorted out some EV cabling and ramps for friends and family.
There's one I walk past on one of my routes. It's there every week between midday and 1pm and it feels higher than 22mm and the ramp definitely isn't shallow.
Same as, one I was past regularly is at least 100mm high, if not a bit more and where they have the cable stretched from their house to the car the cable is often lifting up either or both ends of it to almost make it float.
I fucking hate it with a passion xD
Whenever there's an article like this, everyone acts as though the number in the headline is the only number in existence. Endless variations on 'Why not invest in [my pet thing] instead?'
And the answer is always... there are other numbers.
The government are investing a lot - and a lot more than this amount, crucially - in walking and cycling (£300 million) and public transport (some proportion of the £92 billion for 'rail and road' upgrades) - and note that buses, coaches, trams and bicycles all also use roads.
I'm not sure how exactly these three figures separate out - I assume the £63m and £300m are part of the £92bn, given the flexible use of the word 'new' when used by governments everywhere. But investing in greener infrastructure is good and seeing people who basically agree with the policies driving themselves into a frothing rage because they haven't checked literally any other source of information is... disheartening.
Instead, I suggest we all get angry about things the government is actually doing wrong! There's plenty to choose from!
Starmer loves a middle class bribe instead of sorting the fucking economy
Nothing revolutionary about this.
Massive for-profit private interests being catered to by the government instead of public transit for the public.
And before the point gets argued like last time I brought it up. Yes in some scenarios cars can't be replaced, but the majority of transport required by the majority of people is better served via bus, tram, train, or bike. I'm not saying abolish cars, I'm saying they don't need massive government subsidy, other modes of transport do.