Traders in Knaresborough are to hold talks with North Yorkshire Council in an attempt to resolve the dispute over electric vehicle charging stations.

Ten charging stations were installed late last year in bays previously available to all vehicles in Chapel Street Car Park.

Most are frequently empty, while customers in petrol or diesel cars struggle to find spaces, particularly on Wednesday market days and Saturdays.

The issue has incensed some business owners who say they are losing customers and the town is losing parking revenue.

A petition calling for some of the 10 EV charging stations in Chapel Street Car Park to be made available to all cars is available in five shops.

The petition has attracted more than 500 signatures, which is the threshold for ensuring the council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee debates the subject.

To keep up the pressure, hairdresser Kelly Teggin asked the council to attend a meeting with town centre businesses.

Kelly Teggin

Ms Teggin said:

“Businesses are absolutely fuming but they also want an amicable resolution to this.

“I’ve had another two customers this week say they won’t come back because of this.”

She emphasised traders supported EV parking, but supply currently out-stripped demand.

Barrie Mason, assistant director for highways and transport at the council, said its electric vehicle infrastructure strategy demonstrated its commitment to tackling climate change.

Mr Mason added:

“We are in correspondence with local councillors and campaigners around electric vehicle infrastructure in Knaresborough and would welcome a meeting.”

He added there was a need for a publicly accessible charging network for people who didn’t have access to charging at home.

Asked why the council chose to install the charging stations in the most central car park, where many older shoppers park, he said:

“Chargers were never intended to be installed in York Place car park as there is a covenant on the land and the town centre is an air quality management area, so we want to encourage people to use their electric vehicles there.

“Also, the grant is primarily aimed at residential charging, and in the area surrounding Chapel Street Car Park there is no access to off-street parking.”

Read more:

• Knaresborough pub to reopen today 111 days after fire
• N-Trance to headline new 90s music festival in Knaresborough
• Knaresborough amusement arcade set to be approved

Knaresborough traders have started a petition calling for some town centre electric vehicle charging stations to be made available to all cars.

Ten parking bays in Chapel Street Car Park were set aside for electric vehicles at the end of last year.

Most are frequently empty — while there is often a scramble for non-electric vehicle parking spaces, especially on Wednesday market days and Saturdays.

The sight of cars circling for parking spaces while the majority of EV bays are empty has infuriated traders, who claim they are losing business due to customers giving up and going elsewhere.

Empty electric vehicle charging stations in Chapel Street car park.

They also say taxpayers are missing out on income the empty bays are failing to generate.

Hairdresser Kelly Teggin, who launched the petition today, said it aimed to get 500 signatures, which would require North Yorkshire Council’s Harrogate and Knaresborough area constituency committee to debate the matter.

Ms Teggin said:

“The council has not really been engaging with us and hopefully this petition will change that.

“Many of my clients are older and say they won’t walk from other car parks further away. I estimate it’s costing the town 500 to 1,000 shoppers a week.”

The petition calls for “North Yorkshire Council to enter into urgent dialogue to discuss a phased transition to full electric vehicle provision”.

Ms Teggin said the council had allocated enough EV charging stations in Knaresborough to meet its targets for 2038 and was ignoring the current reality on the ground. She added:

“We agree we need EV parking bays but we don’t need 10 now.”

Fellow Knaresborough businessman Steve Teggin said it wasn’t realistic to expect older people carrying shopping to walk from car parks further out of town.

It is still unclear whether non-EV vehicles parking in EV bays are getting fined.

Ms Teggin said the council had not engaged on the matter and no car park signage explains the situation.

Read more:

• River Nidd testing for E coli to begin at Knaresborough today
• Knaresborough could get country’s first water-powered EV charging station

Cllr Matt Walker, a Liberal Democrat who represents Knaresborough West on North Yorkshire Council, has criticised the council’s approach.

Speaking last month, he said:

“The council needs to make sure these spaces can be used by people if they are not being used by people with electric vehicles.

“If they are sat empty it benefits nobody. Businesses are losing out on customers and the council is losing out on thousands of pounds of revenue.”

The petition can be signed in Sheer Bliss, Nottingham Jewellers, Hirsts Bakery, The School and Dance Shop and Kelly Teggin Hair and Beauty in Knaresborough.

North Yorkshire Council has been approached for comment.

The leader of the opposition on North Yorkshire Council has wished the authority “good luck” in establishing a comprehensive network of electric vehicle charging points after hearing the local electricity grid was “not fit for purpose”.

A meeting of the council’s executive was told the authority was so concerned about it impeding the establishment of the required 3,000 publicly available EV charging points by 2030 that the council was investigating using solar and hydro-electric solutions to provide power in some places.

Setting out a strategy to rapidly expand EV charging points, Cllr Keane Duncan, the authority’s executive member for highways and transportation, said the council was determined rural areas should not “fall behind”.

However, he said the rural nature of North Yorkshire and electricity grid constraints meant the county faced a relatively greater challenge in preparing for the switch to electric vehicles than elsewhere.

Cllr Keane Duncan

In addition, the relatively high proportion of properties in the county with no off-street parking – some 21% – would mean a greater demand for publicly available EV charging points than elsewhere.

The meeting heard while the council was developing on-street charging proposals it was focused on creating the publicly available EV charging points at “hub locations” where it would be convenient for residents and visitors to use them, rather than “tucked away in the corner of a car park”.

Read more:

• Rudding Park installs 12 new electric vehicle charging points
• Knaresborough businesses criticise ‘ludicrous’ empty electric vehicle charging bays

Executive members were told with £3.4m of funding already secured to expand EV charging points, the council had obtained more money than any other local authority in the country for the programme.

The council is also optimistic about landing a further £5.1m of capital and £500,000 of revenue funding to deliver on its EV charging network aspirations, but the meeting was told the lack of power grid capacity would be a key factor in the council’s ability to create an EV charging network.

Paul Haslam, a Conservative who represents Bilton and Nidd Gorge, warned the meeting the lack of availability on the power grid could “make a mess of our strategy if we’re not careful”.

The council’s climate change boss Cllr Greg White added: 

“It’s great that we are going to have all these charging points, but are we going to have an electrical supply to these charging points to make them work because the local electricity distribution network at the moment doesn’t seem like it’s going to be fit for purpose.”

Wishing the council “good luck” in overcoming the challenges, Cllr Bryn Griffiths, the Liberal Democrat group leader, said the authority had reached “a drop in the ocean of where we need to be” in securing EV charging infrastructure, before receiving reassurances that the authority would consider changing planning policies to increase charging opportunities.

The authority’s chief executive, Richard Flinton, told the meeting how he and leaders of North Yorkshire businesses had held talks with Northern Powergrid officials and the National Infrastructure Commission last week to tell them the lack of grid connectivity was damaging businesses.

He said the council had been regularly lobbying the electricity infrastructure firm to develop capacity on the grid.

Mr Flinton added: 

“We are startlingly aware that when we move into post-2030 the requirement that cars are going to be non-fossil fuel that there could be an impact on North Yorkshire, and even the transition period before we move entirely to electric fuel vehicles could be problematic for North Yorkshire if we don’t get this right.

“We are in the hands of others, but we are working very hard to make those other parties understand that we in North Yorkshire are very concerned about this and require their engagement on our issues.”

Northern Powergrid is yet to respond to requests for comment.

Midday on market day in Knaresborough last Wednesday brought a familiar sight — cars struggling to park.

Town centre parking is rarely easy in Knaresborough but the decision to allocate 10 of the 56 parking spaces in Chapel Street car park to electric vehicle charging bays has incensed some businesses.

While vehicles hovered around the car park for a space to emerge, nine of the 10 EV charging bays were empty. Business owners say it’s costing them trade and are calling for a rethink.

We spoke to several who were all at pains to point out they support better infrastructure for electric vehicles, but claim Harrogate Borough Council went too far, too soon by removing so many bays at once and a rethink is required.

The sole vehicle charging in Chapel Street when the Stray Ferret visited last week was being used by Bev Nelson, who is originally from Harrogate but now lives in Sheffield.

Ms Nelson visits Knaresborough every few weeks for a hairdressing appointment at Kelly Teggin Hair and Beauty on Castlegate and said the chargers were great for her but questioned whether so many bays were required:

Bev Nelson (seated) and Kelly Teggin

Ms Nelson’s car was the only one being charged.

She said:

“We have a public car park near where I live in Sheffield which has two electric chargers. Ten does seem excessive.”

Ms Nelson pays via an app and hooks up a connection cable she keeps in her car. But although the charging process is simple, it isn’t quick: she needs to plug in for four hours just for 25% charge, which raises questions about the suitability of locating the charging bays in short stay town centre car parks.

Ms Nelson says she sympathised with Ms Teggin and other business owners who are feeling the impact.

Ms Teggin says:

“It’s hitting our shops really hard. I’ve got older lady customers who just don’t come to Knaresborough anymore.”

All the businesses we spoke to said some of the 10 EV bays should be made available to all vehicles until demand caught up with supply. Over time. more bays could be allocated EV-only, they said.

Garry Gilmour

Garry Gilmour, director of estate agents Newby James, said:

“There’s never more than three out of 10 spaces taken. I worked in the motor trade for years and electric vehicles are good but I don’t think they have thought this through.”

No multi-storey car parks

Emma Brierley, owner of butchers Huttons, agreed, saying the current allocation had been done to meet targets for 2038. She said:

“They have taken too many spaces too quickly. There’s not the need at the moment for that many.

“We already lose parking spaces on market day because of the market so with this on top we are 30 or 40 spaces down.  We don’t have any multi-storey car parks like Harrogate or a big supermarket car park like Ripon.”

Emma Brierley

Gill Mitchell

Gill Mitchell, owner of shoe shop Stomp, agreed.

“There’s a massive problem with parking in the town centre.

“Kelly has lost appointments which could be costing her £100 each. You can understand her frustration. It’s not as bad here because customers can come whenever they like.

“I can see both sides of the argument but it is a problem because some customers are saying ‘we can’t be bothered to come in because there’s nowhere to park’.”

Some traders said they weren’t sure whether non-EV vehicles parked in EV bays were actually getting parking tickets.

Harrogate Borough Council did not respond to this point when the Stray Ferret asked.

‘It’s been a big issue for some time’

Councillor Phil Ireland, the Conservative Cabinet member for carbon reduction and sustainability at Harrogate Borough Council lives in Knaresborough.

Last week he attended an event in Harrogate alongside rugby league legend Martin Offiah to mark the roll-out of 100 electric vehicle charging points in the Harrogate district.

Cllr Ireland said he understood and sympathised with the concerns:

“There’s always been this question of parking availability in the town centre. I know it’s been a big issue for some time”

But he added there were plenty of spaces just outside the town centre, such as York Place long-stay, which has 240 bays and is “grossly underused” although he acknowledged it was too far for some people. Knaresborough, he added, had good buses.

“Market day is always a pinch point. It’s popular and we do our best to keep it that way.

“But we’ve got to persuade people to invest in EV.”

Cllr Ireland said “range anxiety” deterred many people from going electric and the availability of chargers would address this.

He suggested groups like Knaresborough & District Chamber and Knaresborough Town Council could work with North Yorkshire Council, which will succeed Harrogate Borough Council at the end of the month, on issues such as running the market, which could lead to improvements.

Knaresborough market is held every Wednesday.

Net-zero by 2038

We put the traders’ concerns to Harrogate Borough Council.

In a statement, a council spokesperson said:

“To help achieve our net zero-carbon economy by 2038, and to support the demand and rapid uptake of electric vehicles following the end of the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030, we are installing almost 100 charging bays across the Harrogate district.

“In response to our ultra-low emission  vehicle strategy consultation, we received significant support for the creation of a public charging network. And thanks to a grant from the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles we have been able to help meet this demand.

“More than 20 chargers will be installed in Knaresborough, including Chapel Street car park which is already being used by both residents and visitors alike.

“These bays, which are for EV charging only, account for less than three per cent of the more than 800 spaces available in Knaresborough, so we are confident that non-EV drivers will still be able to find a space in one of the six car parks in the market town, including York Place which is a five-minute walk from the town square. There is also plenty of on-street disc parking across the town.

“Any EVs who use a charging bay at Chapel Street car park, or any of the charging bays across the district, will still need to adhere to the maximum stay period (four hours) and pay for the amount of time they park for (pay and display), as well as the cost of charging their vehicle. There are no parking fees for charging bays between the hours of 6pm and 8am to help residents charge their vehicles overnight.”

Rugby legend Martin Offiah visited Harrogate today for an event to mark the rollout of 100 electric vehicle charging points.

Mr Offiah, who once raced down the wing at Wembley for England, touched down at the slightly humbler surroundings of Park View car park on East Parade in his role as a brand ambassador for Connected Kerb, a company that provides the infrastructure for electric vehicle charging points.

Harrogate Borough Council signed a contract with Connected Kerb for the installation of charging points in Harrogate, Ripon, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Pateley Bridge and Masham.

Mr Offiah joined Harrogate district mayor, councillor Victoria Oldham, as she cut a ribbon to signify Park View car park’s six electric charging bays were now ready for use.

Charging bays are also active in Harrogate at West Park multi-storey car park and the council’s civic centre and also at Chapel Street car park in Knaresborough and Market Place in Masham.

The charging points in Park View car park.

All the other bays, listed below, should be live by April. They are available to anyone who downloads the Connected Kerb app and has a Type 2 EV charging cable.

Mr Offiah, who has a statue outside Wembley Stadium and has been a Connected Kerb ambassador since 2018, said his message to people in the district was to “look for reasons to get an electric vehicle rather than reasons not to get one”.

The project has been funded by the council with additional support from the Office for Zero Emissions Vehicles.

The deployment is part of the council’s efforts to increase the proportion of cleaner ultra-low emission vehicles in the district.

Councillor Phil Ireland, the council’s cabinet member for carbon reduction and sustainability, who was at today’s launch, said:

“The Harrogate district has seen a rapid uptake in the purchase of electric vehicles, and if we are to achieve our ambition of net zero by 2038 it is important we support those residents to charge electric cars, while also encouraging more cycling and walking.

“These new charging points will support the uptake in electric vehicles for both our residents and our visitor economy, across the district.”

Chris Pateman-Jones, chief executive of Connected Kerb, said:

“Providing long-lasting, affordable and accessible charging points in northern towns and cities is essential to ensuring that nobody is left behind in the electric vehicle transition.

“By supporting EV drivers in Harrogate who have no access to off-street parking, we can make charging their vehicle more convenient while boosting local air quality and meeting climate goals.”

Where are the new charging points?

Harrogate

Victoria multi-storey car park – 12 Bays

Hornbeam Park – 12 Bays

Odeon – 12 Bays

West Park – 8 Bays

Park View – 6 Bays

Dragon Road – 10 Bays

Knaresborough

Conyngham Hall – 12 Bays

Chapel Street – 10 Bays

Leisure Centre (new) – 5 Bays

Ripon (new)

Cathedral Car Park – 6 Bays

Blossomgate Car Park – 4 Bays

Ripon (existing)

Leisure Centre – 5 Bays

Phoenix Business Park – 4 Bays

Boroughbridge (Phase 2)

Back Lane Car Park – Up to 6 bays

Pateley Bridge

Southlands Car Park – 4 Bays

Masham

Market Place – 4 Bays

The Yorkshire Event Centre in Harrogate is expecting to host tens of thousands more visitors after securing several new deals for 2023.

The new events include an epic comic convention, the UK’s biggest outdoor holiday home show, a model rail showcase and an electric vehicle extravaganza.

Heather Parry, managing director of the Yorkshire Event Centre, said:

“We are excited to be heading into 2023 with a number of new, high-profile shows to be held here for the first time. All of these have strong national profiles, guaranteed to attract thousands of visitors into the region, and we are proud to host them here.”

Harrogate Model Engineering Exhibition and Model Rail 2023, on Friday and Saturday, March 10 and 11, will have large-scale traction engines, model boats, military, earth-moving display, live steam, model trucks, aero modelling, railway locomotives and over 40 club and society displays.

Model Rail 2023 will feature  the largest model railway in the UK. ‘Heaton Lodge Junction’ is a 200ft x 50ft masterpiece that took over seven years to build.

Fully Charged LIVE North 2023, which is billed as the world’s number-one electric vehicle and clean energy show, is expected to attract 10,000 to 15,000 visitors to the YEC.

The show, which will be held from Friday, May 19 to Sunday, May 21, will complement a series of other Fully Charged LIVE shows which are held in Europe, America, Canada and Australia, as well as Fully Charged LIVE South, which is held in Hampshire.

Founded by actor, author and presenter Robert Llewellyn, the hugely popular Fully Charged YouTube channel has more than 163 million views and nearly a million subscribers, and covers electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes, from electric bikes to electric boats, as well as covering the clean, sustainable energy sources that these technologies can run on.

Fully Charged at the Yorkshire Event Centre: (l to r) presenter Robert Llewellyn, YEC venue manager Richard Moorhouse, Dan Caesar and YEC sales manager Ben Chatburn.

Comic-Con will be at the Yorkshire Event Centre on the weekend of June 3-4 as part of a national tour. Visitors can expect big-name guests, amazing set and prop builds, major attractions, cosplay, anime, traders, gaming and more.

Finally, organisers of the UK’s biggest outdoor holiday home show, HERCMA, recently announced their relocation to the Great Yorkshire Showground.

Rebranded as The Great Holiday Home Show, it will be held from Friday, September 8 to Sunday, September 10 for the public, followed by a trade-only show from Tuesday, September 12 to Thursday, September 14. The outdoor show of holiday homes, caravans and motorhomes, is set to get a brand-new look, with new content to be announced nearer the time.

The Great Yorkshire Showground has 250 acres of outdoor space and can also host large-scale indoor events.

The YEC is based on the 250-acre Great Yorkshire Showground, which has 250 acres of outdoor space to offer event organisers and free parking. It can host large-scale indoor events across the two halls in the Yorkshire Event Centre or in one of the 14 rooms at the Pavilions of Harrogate.

Businesses and events held at the Great Yorkshire Showground contributed £73.7 million to the local economy in 2019, the latest year for which figures are available.

Read more:

• Harrogate to host Comic Con Yorkshire 2023
• UK’s biggest outdoor holiday home show to come to Harrogate

One hundred new electric vehicle charging bays are due to be installed in the Harrogate district this year, bringing the total to 120.

The bays are expected to be available early this year but the dates for each locality have not yet been published.

Half of the district’s 120 bays will be in Harrogate, which will have 60. They include a dozen each at the Victoria multi-storey car park, the Odeon cinema and Hornbeam Park.

There will be 27 in Knaresborough, 19 in Ripon, six in Boroughbridge and four each in Pateley Bridge and Masham.

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesperson said the bays would help achieve a net zero-carbon economy by 2038, adding:

“These new charging points support the uptake in electric vehicles for both our residents and our visitor economy, and complement other sustainable travel options.”

Read more:

• Knaresborough business criticises electric vehicle parking ‘madness’
• Harrogate electric buses to be free on Sundays

Chapel Street car park in Knaresborough

The decision to block off existing car park spaces for the new bays before they were in use caused controversy in Knaresborough last month when one business said it was damaging trade.

Hairdressers Kelly Teggin said she supported the introduction of electric charging bays but couldn’t understand why it had been done in the run-up to Christmas when the new bays weren’t even in use yet.

Harrogate

Victoria multi-storey car park – 12 Bays

Hornbeam Park – 12 Bays

Odeon – 12 Bays

West Park – 8 Bays

Park View – 6 Bays

Dragon Road – 10 Bays

Knaresborough

Conyngham Hall – 12 Bays

Chapel Street – 10 Bays

Leisure Centre (new) – 5 Bays

Ripon (new)

Cathedral Car Park – 6 Bays

Blossomgate Car Park – 4 Bays

Ripon (existing)

Leisure Centre – 5 Bays

Phoenix Business Park – 4 Bays

Boroughbridge (Phase 2)

Back Lane Car Park – Up to 6 bays

Pateley Bridge

Southlands Car Park – 4 Bays

Masham

Market Place – 4 Bays

A public consultation into plans for electric vehicle charging points across North Yorkshire looks set to be launched.

Senior councillors on North Yorkshire County Council’s executive are expected to agree next week to start the consultation this month.

It will lead to the creation of an electric vehicle charging infrastructure strategy to expand the infrastructure.

Latest figures show there are almost 4,000 electric vehicles registered in North Yorkshire, and 225 publicly available charge points, and take-up of electric vehicles is rising rapidly each year.

County council officers forecast that 3,161 charge points will be needed by 2030, of which half will need to be funded by the public sector at an estimated cost of £10.3 million.

Cllr Greg White, the council’s executive member for climate change, said:

“The ownership of electric vehicles in North Yorkshire is increasing quickly. This is encouraging – to achieve the county’s ambitious carbon zero target, for smaller vehicles, we need to make the switch to electric as close as possible to 2030.

“But North Yorkshire faces particular challenges, partly due to its rural nature and partly the lack of off-street parking in some villages and urban residential areas.

“We need to understand these needs and the challenges they present and be ready to meet them. That’s why we want to seek the input and feedback of the public to help to shape our strategy for the coming years.”

Read more:

• Harrogate council awards £280,000 electric vehicle contract to London firm
• Harrogate district to get 20 new electric vehicle chargepoints
• Harrogate businesses go electric as number of cars licensed doubles

The council has already secured more than £2 million from the government to finance the expansion of the county’s network of electric vehicle charging points.

In August, the authority revealed that the Harrogate district would get 10 chargers.

The chargers are part of the new Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme where the council and industry work in partnership.

It was previously suggested that Markington, Pateley Bridge and Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough could receive new chargepoints. However, this has yet to be confirmed.

APS, which runs a national electric vehicle charger repair and maintenance service in Harrogate, has partnered with Harrogate College to set up a training and recruitment programme.

Harrogate College will be introducing the new course to help the borough transition to electric cars.

Principal Danny Wild of Harrogate College said:

“We are determined to support emerging green technologies and have been working closely with local firms so we can provide the appropriately skilled, work-ready students they need.

“The electric vehicle sector is a rapidly growing one that represents a fantastic opportunity for both our students and local businesses.”

Despite having more electric vehicles than any other district in North Yorkshire, the Stray Ferret recently reported how Harrogate is one of the ‘worst prepared areas in the UK’ for transitioning to electric vehicles.

It was estimated that the borough had just one charging point for every 134 electric or hybrid cars.

However, APS Business Development Manager, John Dyson, defended the situation.

He said:

“It is ironic that Harrogate has been criticised so strongly for a lack of action over installing electric vehicle chargers when there actually is so much going on behind the scenes.

“Recent announcements by Transdev, that all Harrogate buses are to be electrified, and Harrogate Borough Council, which is to install 34 charge points in local car parks, gives a taste of just what is on its way.”

The level 3 award in the Installation and Commissioning of Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment will start in September at Harrogate College.

Linley & Simpson fundraise for children’s hospice

In training (from left) Callum Collbeck, Pawel Ziemak, Freddie Purdy, Adam Hughes and Josh Boocock

Linley & Simpson will start a year of fund-raising challenges in support of Martin’s House Children’s Hospice.

The estate agent, which has branches in Ripon and Wetherby, is marking its 25^th anniversary by aiming to raise £25,000 for Martin House, based at Boston Spa.

The team has previously managed to raise £100,000 in support of the charity.

As part of the fundraise, they will abseil 50ft down the Cow and Calf rocks at Ilkley Moor. The following week, 40 colleagues will also face a 12k course of mud, ice and obstacles.

Emily Wilkinson, Wetherby Branch Manager at Linley & Simpson, said:

“The work of Martin House has touched the lives of our people in many ways, and we are pleased to be able to ‘give back’ through this initial set of events as well as a host of others that are in the pipeline.”

The challenge begins on June 16, with more information available on the website. 

Read more:

• Pret A Manger set to open in Harrogate ‘very soon’
• Oliver Bonas set to open store in Harrogate

Ex-England footballer Micah Richards has claimed Harrogate Borough Council thwarted his bid to install an electric vehicle charging point at his Harrogate home.

Richards is a regular pundit on Sky Sports alongside Roy Keane and Graeme Souness. During Sunday’s coverage, the trio discussed what steps they had taken to tackle climate change and improve the environment.

Richards said he had an electric car and hoped to install a charging point at his home.

However, the former England player claimed he was held back by the council’s planning department. He said:

“I had an electric car for a while. Harrogate council though didn’t allow me to have a charger. So I had to stop that for about six months.”

Read more:

• Locations of 34 electric vehicle charge points revealed
• Harrogate council staff could be offered electric cars

Richards’ comments received support on Twitter, with one person saying councils and government should do more to install charging points and encourage electric vehicle use:

“Good of Micah Richards to mention Harrogate council. The government and councils don’t help on the expense involved of electric cars and charging points to make it practical. You either want to do this as a country for people or not.”

Another person tweeted:

“Micah Richards calling out Harrogate planning department for refusing an electric charging point was not the content I was expecting when turning on Sky Sports today!”

A council spokesman said:

“Planning permission is not normally required for the installation of wall-mounted electric vehicle charging points so we’d welcome Mr Richards getting in touch with us as we’d be happy to help.

“He is also welcome to use the charging points at our civic centre on St Luke’s Avenue in Harrogate.”