Plans to put electric car chargers in a private garden next to a listed building are recommended for approval by councillors next week.
Residents in grade II listed Hanover Crescent, Brighton, are divided over the plans to fit an electric vehicle (EV) charging post to serve two parking bays and a “kiosk” to house associated electrical equipment.
The Hanover Crescent Enclosure Committee submitted a planning application to Brighton and Hove City Council.
The council has received six letters of objection and eight in support of the plans so the decision will be made by the council’s Planning Committee.
The committee said in its application that three-quarters of the crescent’s residents responded to a consultation with 72 per cent in favour of installing the chargers next to two parking spaces.
The committee said: “The proposed development provides essential EV charging infrastructure while respecting the character and functionality of the private road. The design prioritises accessibility, safety and environmental sustainability.”
The kiosk would be green and hidden by shrubs although a trench will have to be dug across the road into the garden area to fit the charger. The work should take 10 days if permission is granted.
Objectors raised concerns about the effect on the Valley Gardens Conservation Area and the listed building.
One anonymous objector whose details were redacted by the council said: “Currently, there are 48 parking bays within Hanover Crescent.
“Less than 10 per cent of vehicles parking in the crescent are electric and yet all residents will be paying for the installation of EV chargers at great expense both initially and ongoing.
“Therefore, resident who are not permitted a parking permit and / or a visitor parking permit, residents who do not own a car and residents who do not own an electric car will be expected to pay for this work … but without benefit.”
Supporters said that there were few chargers in the area and the proposed charger would have little effect on the gardens and listed building.
An anonymous supporter, whose details were also redacted by the council, said: “The EV charging points will help address a growing need for charging in the area as we gradually switch from fossil fuel to electric.
“Currently, most local chargers are not available to Hanover Crescent residents. The location and design of the proposed charging points should have limited if any impact on the aesthetics of the crescent or on our use and enjoyment of the gardens.”
The Planning Committee is due at meet at 2pm next Wednesday (4 June) at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
The objections feel like selective environmentalism to me.
“Less than 10 per cent of vehicles parking in the crescent are electric and yet all residents will be paying for the installation of EV chargers at great expense both initially and ongoing“
This is what happens when you live in areas like this.
There will always be some item of expenditure that some will and some won’t benefit from yet all end up paying for as part of the fees you pay.
I also feel it’s chicken and egg reasoning. Lack of EV vehicles because there are not enough charger points.
The EV trend is on the wane now with acres of unsold EVs in the far east. No point in installing more. They are naught more than expensive and fire hazardous electric toys for virtue signallers who seem to believe electricity grows on trees.
Mate, you’ve bundled more myths into one paragraph than Jeremy Clarkson squeezes clichés into a whole Grand Tour episode. Let’s prise them apart.
1. “The trend is on the wane”… really?
Last year the world bought 17 million new plug-ins – a 25 % jump on 2023 and the fourth record year in a row. In the first quarter of 2025 sales were up another 35 % year-on-year, pushing EVs past one-in-five of all cars sold worldwide. That’s not a fad winding down; that’s the fastest-growing bit of the entire auto market.  
2. About those “acres of unsold EVs in the Far East”…
The viral drone footage shows a graveyard of battered, five-year-old ride-share runabouts whose operators went bust – not shiny new cars nobody wants. Counted properly the lot holds a few hundred clapped-out city cars, not tens of thousands of unsold stock. In the same country BYD alone shifted 382 000 vehicles in May while slashing prices to keep up with demand.  
3. “Fire-hazardous electric toys” – try some numbers.
According to U.S. National Transportation Safety Board data, petrol cars ignite at about 1 530 fires per 100 000 vehicles. EVs? Roughly 25 per 100 000. That’s 60-plus times safer, even before you count the fact an EV can’t spill flammable liquid all over the road. 
4. “They’re eye-wateringly dear.”
Electric drivetrains waste only 9–13 % of the energy you feed them, while a typical petrol engine wastes 70 %. That efficiency – plus skinnier servicing bills – means total running costs have already undercut equivalent ICE cars in most markets, and sticker prices are tumbling: you can now buy a brand-new BYD Seagull in China for under £9 k.  
5. “But electricity doesn’t grow on trees.”
True – it increasingly blows in on the wind. In the UK, renewables supplied 50.8 % of all electricity in 2024, beating fossil fuels for the first time. Every year the grid gets cleaner, so every mile an EV drives today will emit less tomorrow – something a petrol car can never claim. 
6. Virtue signalling?
If choosing the cheaper, safer, quieter, and ever-cleaner option counts as virtue signalling, then the market is signalling pretty loudly – and it’s spelling “internal-combustion who?” in neon letters.
So perhaps park the Facebook memes, grab some up-to-date figures, and give this “expensive fire-prone fad” yarn the dignified burial it deserves – preferably next to those retired ride-share beaters in Shenzhen.