Cross Pavement Charging or a Driveway? Planning for an Electric Car
You cannot simply run a charging cable from your house across the pavement to your car. The Highways Act 1980 makes it illegal to place a wire over, along or across a pavement without the highway authority's consent, and the government's guidance warns that trailing cables are a trip hazard and may breach the Act. Cross pavement charging is only legal where your council approves a solution, usually a cable channel set into the pavement. If you have a front garden, the more reliable answer is often a proper driveway with the charger and cable route planned in from the start.
What is cross pavement charging?
Cross pavement charging lets someone without a driveway charge from their home electricity supply while parked on the street. The government's guidance for councils, published by the Department for Transport and the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles, describes two main types:
Cable channels (gullies): a narrow channel cut into the pavement with a cover, which houses the charging cable while the car charges. The cable comes out again afterwards.
Permanent under-pavement cables: a cable buried under the footway, connecting to the car through a removable bollard, a lance or a similar connector at the kerb.
Cable channels are the most common at present, and many councils have run trials with different suppliers.
Is it legal to run an EV cable across the pavement?
Not without permission. Planning Portal states that the Highways Act 1980 makes it illegal to place a wire or apparatus over, along or across a highway or pavement without consent from the highway authority. In the West Midlands that authority is the local council (City of Wolverhampton Council for Wolverhampton addresses), not the combined authority.
The decision to allow a cross-pavement solution rests with that council. Where one is approved, it usually involves a street works licence (a section 50 licence) for the installation, conditions about materials, workmanship and reinstatement, and sometimes a separate planning permission. Applications are not always accepted: the guidance asks councils to weigh factors such as the width and construction of the pavement and whether parking outside the house is reliably available, and notes these solutions work best where residents can park on the street by their property at least once a week.
Does Wolverhampton allow cable channels?
Policies vary between councils and are changing quickly as trials finish. At the time of writing we could not find a published cross-pavement charging policy on the City of Wolverhampton Council website, so the only safe step is to ask the council's highways team before buying anything. Never cut into the pavement yourself or pay an installer to do it without written approval: it is the council's footway. If your house has a front garden, there is a simpler route, and the charger position is worth raising at the site visit for any new driveways in Wolverhampton.
When a driveway is the better answer
If you have a front garden, off-street parking removes the cable problem altogether, and you are no longer relying on a space being free outside your house. What it takes:
A dropped kerb. You need the council's approval for a vehicle crossing before you can legally drive over the pavement. In Wolverhampton this starts with a footway crossing application and an inspection by a council officer; the council does not build the crossing itself, so the contractor you choose usually applies and builds it.
A drive that meets the planning rules. Over 5 square metres of new hard surface in a front garden must be permeable or drain to a lawn or border on your land, or it needs planning permission.
A charger position and cable route decided before the surface goes down.
The third point is the one most often left until too late.
Planning an EV-ready driveway
Where should the charger go?
Put the charger where the cable reaches the car's charging port without stretching across the path to the front door. Most homeowners choose a wall-mounted unit on the front of the house or garage, close to where the car's charge port will sit when parked. Think about which way you park and whether a second car might need to charge later.
Planning Portal's permitted development rules allow a wall-mounted charge point for off-street parking, with the unit no bigger than 0.2 cubic metres, and an upright charging post up to 1.6 metres high within the grounds of a house (one per parking space). Neither right applies within the grounds of a listed building.
Lay the duct before the surface
If the charger is going on a post, or on a garage across the drive from the house, the cable has to run under the new surface. The time to deal with that is during the dig-out, before the sub-base is compacted. A duct laid at that stage, with a draw cord left in, means the electrician can pull the cable through later without anyone cutting a new surface. Ask your electrician what size of duct and route they want, then ask your driveway installer whether they will lay it to that spec while the ground is open, or whether the electrician should do it before the sub-base goes in.
Cutting a trench through a finished drive is possible, but the repair line will always show, particularly on resin bound or pattern imprinted concrete.
Keep the charger out of the wet
Do not put a charging post at the lowest point of the drive where water collects after rain. If your current drive already holds water, our post on water pooling on a driveway explains the causes and fixes. The charger, its cable and the drainage should be designed together.
Which surface suits an electric car?
Any well-built driveway surface will take an electric car. The battery can make one heavier than a similar petrol car, which is one more reason the sub-base matters. If the frontage drains to the road, a permeable surface such as resin bound on a porous base solves the planning question without a separate soakaway. If you prefer tarmac or imprinted concrete, the falls have to direct water to a border or drain on your land; the driveway soakaway rules explain the options.
EV charging questions, answered
Do new homes have to come with a charger?
Under Approved Document S of the Building Regulations, new homes in England with associated parking generally need an electric vehicle charge point, subject to some exemptions. An ordinary existing home does not have to add one.
Are there grants for chargers?
Government grant schemes for home and on-street charging have changed several times. Check the current schemes and eligibility on gov.uk or with your installer rather than relying on older figures.
Who installs the charger itself?
A qualified electrician or specialist charge point installer, who will check your supply and fit and certify the circuit. Agree early who lays the cable duct, so it is in before the surface goes down.
Getting your drive ready
If you are swapping to an electric car and have space at the front, Pete and the team can plan the drive and the drainage, and talk through where the charger and cable will go, on one site visit, from our base in Tettenhall. Get in touch for a free quote.
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