Cross-Pavement EV Charging: Council Permission Guide
Last checked: Thu Aug 13 2026 01:00:00 GMT+0100 (British Summer Time)
If you don’t have a driveway, the government’s answer to “how do I charge at home” is a cross-pavement charging solution - a cable channel set into the pavement so you can run power from your house to your car parked on the street, without a trailing cable creating a trip hazard. It sounds simple. In practice, it’s the single most confusing grant in the whole EV charging category, because two different authorities have to agree, and they don’t always want the same thing.
What the grant actually covers
Central government will fund up to £500, or 75% of the total cost - whichever is lower - for a smart charger installed alongside an approved cable channel product. The two names you’ll see most often are Kerbo Charge and Pavecross: physical channels that sit flush with the pavement so a cable can run through them safely, rather than being laid loose across a public footway.
That’s the national side of the equation, and it’s the part most articles stop at. It’s also the part that’s easiest to get right, because it’s a standard grant application through the government portal, similar in shape to other EV charging grants.
The part that actually decides whether you can do this: your council
A cable channel crosses a public pavement, which means it isn’t just an electrical installation - it’s a change to the highway, and your local council is the highway authority. This is where the national incentive runs into local reality. Council policy on cross-pavement charging varies enormously:
- Some councils have an established, published process and will approve a compliant application in a reasonable timeframe.
- Some councils will consider it case by case, with no fixed process, which usually means a slower and less predictable outcome.
- Some councils won’t currently permit cross-pavement installations at all, regardless of the product used.
- Some councils charge a non-refundable fee - sometimes as much as £250 - just to review your enquiry, before any decision is made and before you know whether you’ll be allowed to proceed.
None of that is stated on the government’s own grant page, because the grant page describes the national scheme, not your specific council’s highway policy. The two are legally separate decisions that happen to both be required before you can install anything.
What to actually do, in order
- Contact your council’s highways team before you contact an installer. Ask specifically about their policy on cross-pavement cable channels for EV charging - not just “EV charging” generally, since some councils have policies on charger installation that don’t cover the pavement-crossing element at all.
- Ask about cost up front. If there’s a non-refundable review fee, you want to know that before you commit to it, not after.
- Only once you have a clear answer from the council, look at installers who work with an approved cable channel product and can handle the grant application alongside the physical install.
- Keep records of everything the council tells you, especially if the answer is unclear or informal - council staff turnover and policy changes are common enough that a written answer is worth having.
If your council says no
There isn’t currently a national appeal mechanism that overrides a council’s refusal - highway authorities have discretion here. Some people have had success by asking their council directly what would need to change for approval (a different product, a different route, evidence of pedestrian clearance), and reapplying with that addressed. Others have gone the local-councillor or resident-association route to push for a published policy where none exists. Neither is guaranteed, and this is one of the genuine open frustrations in this whole category - a case where national policy actively encourages something local policy is entitled to block.
If cross-pavement charging isn’t viable for your property, on-street charging without a permanent installation and public charging networks remain fallback options while you wait for a policy answer either way.