Cable concerns prompt parking rethink

Friday 31 July 2020

St. Helier is reviewing the position of a charging point for electric cars after concerns were raised about its safety.

A photo posted on social media showed a long cable charging a car pulled across the front of an electric van in the area of the Parade, close to Cyril Le Marquand House.

“Surely this isn’t safe?” commented one person.

Another suggested that it would make more sense to have a charging bay each side of the station rather than two on one side.

Now the Parish of St. Helier, which chose the location of the black charging point, its associated grey box, and the two blue-lined parallel charging bays, says the arrangement is under review.

Surely this isn't safe, certainly not legal!
Why wasn't the charge point between the two spaces?
That van should surely not be reversed out onto the road at that angle (especially risking dragging the other car's strewn cable)
Really poor design @Deputy_Lewis pic.twitter.com/ksPOdC7poY

— mpw (@mpw_) July 25, 2020

Parish CEO Jason Turner said: “It would certainly be a reasonable suggestion to move one bay to the other side; it might also be sensible to lengthen the charging cable, so it runs along the ground rather than across the van. 

“We are keeping this under review and will continue to liaise with EVie and the JEC, who installed the point, about making improvements. Electric vehicles have plugs in all sorts of places so having a long cable will probably still be necessary. The bay on the other side is reserved for GPs so we need to look at that too.”

EVie director Gavin Breeze said that it was not a public charging point and the spaces were only used by company vehicles and staff.

“We didn’t choose this arrangement, but we have an excellent relationship with both St Helier and the JEC and we’re always keen to make improvements if possible,” he said. 

Meanwhile, the JEC has recently created new public electric car charging points in the Waterfront car park, adding four 22W public bays and two 7W for EVie cars.

EVie, which also operates a fleet of electric bikes, now has four town charge points.

Pictured top: Concerns about the charing point were first raised by Twitter user @mpw_.