The county council’s latest EV charging solution is a trial of cross-pavement gullies. It is working with around 30 residents who do not have off-street parking to easily charge.
The trial has seen each homeowner have a gully installed across the pavement, allowing them to safely run a cable from their house, through the gully, to their car.
The success of the project will be assessed in early 2026, to see if it can be rolled out further. Early indications are that is has proved popular.
Homeowner, John Taylor from Ipswich, said:
“I’ve been an EV driver for 10 years and was used to relying on a mix of workplace chargers, public chargepoints in council car parks and at supermarkets.
“Having the charge gully has been transformational, allowing me to charge off my solar panels and cheap renewable grid electricity, saving me over £500 a year! – I’m proof that it is possible for average and low earners to go electric.”
Councillor Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s Cabinet Member for Devolution, Local Government Reorganisation and NSIPs, said:
“It was a real pleasure to meet John and see what a success the charging gully has been. For him, it has been revolutionary, and just as importantly it has not been a hazard for those using the pavement.
“That’s exactly what we’ve been achieving with Plug In Suffolk - solutions to EV charging for those that want to move away from petrol and diesel cars, but don’t have off-street parking to simply install their own charger by their driveway.
“I’m proud that the county council has been leading the way in EV progress for many years, and will continue to do so.”
Following the site visit to the cross-pavement charging installation, the minister was invited to Suffolk County Council, for a meeting to discuss the council’s experience of EV funding, and its wider support for the EV transition.
On the ministerial visit, Councillor Richard Rout said:
“It was good to sit down with the minister, in Suffolk, and discuss the opportunities and challenges that the county council faces with EV infrastructure.
“We have been pioneers in Suffolk, and are putting national funding to good use to find solutions to help our residents make the important transition to EVs.
“However rumours that the Chancellor’s upcoming Budget plans might include a pay-per-mile EV tax do concern me and I raised this with the minister.
“To my mind, this would undo a lot of the good work that has been done to date, punish existing EV owners who have been sold the vehicles on the basis they save money, and create yet another barrier to ownership. It would be a retrograde step.”
The Plug In Suffolk project began nearly seven years ago, as the UK’s first ‘fully open’ public fast charging network for electric vehicles, meaning drivers simply pay by contactless payment with no need to register their details. Around 100 of these chargepoints were installed in largely rural locations, such as community centres.
Following a successful bid in March 2024 to the government’s Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (LEVI) fund, the county council was awarded £5.3 million to install on-street chargepoints.
It was the first local authority in England to both award their LEVI main funding tender, and subsequently sign a contract with an operator, Believ, who are providing a further £16 million of funding, meaning Suffolk will see 6,000 chargepoints installed.
After close work with district and borough councils, communities, Believ, and from a survey to residents last year, the first of these on-street installations is beginning this month (November 2025).
Find out more about Plug in Suffolk on the Suffolk County Council website.
