Cross-pavement EV charging: rules, costs and gullies

What a cross-pavement solution is

A cross-pavement solution is a channel set into the pavement so that a charging cable can run from your house to a car parked at the kerb without lying across the footway. The new English planning rules define it as “a pavement-embedded cable channel that allows a cable for the recharging of electric vehicles to safely cross a footway from a domestic premises to a parked vehicle”.

Cable covers and rubber mats laid over a trailing cable are not cross-pavement solutions. They do not qualify for the OZEV grant, and most councils ban them. For the wider set of options, including lamp-post chargers, see our guide to charging without a driveway.

Products and prices

The supplier landscape is small and mostly council-led. You rarely buy a channel yourself: the council or its approved supplier installs it and sets your price.

What councils charge residents

Prices vary because England’s £25 million Pavement Channels Grant paid councils “up to an average of £1,200 per channel”. Councils that applied cut what residents pay. Residents cannot apply for it themselves. Where a council page exists we use it. Kerbo’s location pages are supplier-run and are marked.

The grants

OZEV on-street grant. 75% of the charger and its installation, up to £500, until 31 March 2027. It opened in March 2024 at £350 and rose on 1 April 2026. You need to own or rent a home you live in, have no private off-street parking, have adequate on-street parking nearby, fit a permanent cross-pavement solution and have your highways authority’s permission. It does not pay for the channel and it “cannot guarantee you a parking space”. Full rules are on our UK grants guide.

England’s Pavement Channels Grant. For councils only. The £25 million fund covered financial year 2025/26, council applications closed on 31 October 2025 and final allocations went up on 30 April 2026. The payments on the GOV.UK page add up to £24.1 million (our sum). Ask your council whether it applied.

Scotland. Energy Saving Trust offers up to £3,500 per household, with up to £400 for the charge point, but only in East Lothian, Moray and Renfrewshire. See our Scotland grants page.

Wales and Northern Ireland. Neither has a separate home cross-pavement grant that we found. The OZEV grant applies in both. In Northern Ireland a cable protector qualifies for the council pilot but not for the OZEV grant.

What the whole project costs a household

Take a household that already has an electric car. It pays for the channel and council fees, plus a charger with standard installation (£949 to £1,099), minus the £500 grant, which leaves £449 to £599 for the charger.

That gives a headline range of about £850 to £2,050. For comparison, EVinfrastructure.co.uk estimates about £3,000 before grants and about £2,000 after both grants.

Running costs come on top: licence fees of £50 to £103 a year in some areas (Bradford, Enfield), £150 for three years in Richmond, and Cumberland recommends refreshing the electrical installation certificate every five years at £100 to £300.

Getting permission, step by step

1. 1

   Check your council runs a scheme

   Use Kerbo's postcode checker or your council's EV pages. If the council does not approve channels, the OZEV grant cannot be used.

2. 2

   Apply and pay any application fee

   Fees run from about £30 to £250 in the councils above. Some are refundable if the site is unsuitable.

3. 3

   Get consent in writing

   The highway authority gives consent under Highways Act 1980 section 178 and issues a street works licence under section 50 of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, or uses its own permit if it installs the channel.

4. 4

   Planning (England)

   Until 20 October 2026 a planning application is normally needed (fees of £262 or £528; Cumberland quotes £309). From 21 October 2026 it is not, for council-authorised channels outside conservation areas, listed buildings' grounds and scheduled monuments.

5. 5

   Apply to OZEV with the consent as evidence

   Start the on-street application on Find a Grant. Wait for OZEV's eligibility notice, up to 10 working days.

6. 6

   Charger first, then channel

   A charger fitted before OZEV confirms eligibility does not qualify. Your OZEV-authorised installer fits the charger and arranges the channel provider if they are not doing it. The council or its supplier installs the channel.

Conditions councils attach

Typical licence conditions from the councils and the London Councils report include: no grass verge or dropped kerb; some boroughs exclude flats and maisonettes; a gap of 2 to 2.5 metres from lamp columns (Bromley 2m, Cumberland 2.5m); public liability insurance (Cumberland asks for £5 million); open-PEN protection on the charger and sometimes an earth rod; and the cable out of the channel when you are not charging. A channel does not give you a parking space, and Cumberland and OZEV both say so.

Is trailing a cable legal?

It is not simply legal or illegal. In England and Wales, Highways Act 1980 section 178 says “no person shall fix or place any overhead beam, rail, pipe, cable, wire or other similar apparatus over, along or across a highway without the consent of the highway authority”. Breach is an offence with a fine up to level 1. Section 162 makes it an offence, with a fine up to level 3, to place a rope, wire or other apparatus across a highway in a way likely to cause danger without adequate warning, and section 137 covers wilful obstruction.

Councils vary. Haringey says a cable across the pavement “is not permitted” and Somerset agrees. Southend tolerates it with conditions but keeps its section 162 powers. Salford “does not condone” it. Worcestershire and Hampshire allow a cable only in a protector while charging. London Councils reports that boroughs “generally prohibit” trailing cables and mats.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland the Highways Act does not apply. EVinfrastructure.co.uk says trailing a cable is a clearer offence there. We have not checked the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 or the Roads (Northern Ireland) Order 1993.

What changes in England on 21 October 2026

The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2026, S.I. 2026/1056, adds a new Class F to Part 9. It permits installing, altering or replacing a cross-pavement solution “by, on behalf of, or with the authorisation of, a highway authority”. It does not apply in a scheduled monument, the curtilage of a listed building or a conservation area. When the channel is no longer needed it must be removed and the pavement reinstated.

The same order requires, for a wall charger, that where a footway lies between the outlet and the vehicle the cable crosses it “by means of an authorised cross-pavement solution”. It leaves the highways permissions in place: the council can still refuse. Our news report and planning permission guide give the detail.