Pavement channels and charging gullies

The terms pavement channel, cross-pavement channel, cross-pavement solution, and gully all refer to mechanisms for those without driveways to connect to their home electricity supply when their car is parked on street. This enables them to cross the driveway divide.

Cross-pavement channels have been around since 2022, when trials of Gul-e took place in Oxfordshire. However, interest has increased recently. EVs have become more mainstream, Deborah Mead has invested in Kerbo Charge on Dragon's Den, and the government has announced one grant to residents using cross-pavement channel and another grant to highway authorities to subsidise channels.

Can I get a pavement channel?

Your highway authority decides whether you can get a pavement channel. They usually decide how much you have to pay and require you to sign a licence which ensures conditions of use, and they may charge an annual fee to cover any maintenance. In two-tier areas, your highway authority will be your county council. In unitary areas, it will be your unitary authority.

To see your highway authority's position on pavement channels, please enter your postcode:

Parking competition

You will not get any right to reserve a parking space on a public road solely for EV charging through a pavement channel. While some authorities do offer reserved spaces for disabled drivers, highway authorities are generally keen to avoid privatisation of public parking spaces through pavement channels.

Manufacturers of pavement channels emphasise that most drivers will not need to charge every day, and discussion with neighbours could help free spaces - as long as neighbour cooperation is voluntary.

Process and planning permission

Because there are no set methods of administering channel applications, the process varies from authority to authority much like dropped kerb applications.

The general pattern involves application, initial approval, a gap for planning permission, installation of the home charger, and finally installation of the channel, which may be a few months after initial application.

England's planning rules treat chargepoints differently depending on whether they are "within an area lawfully used for off-street parking" or not (The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015, Schedule 2, Part 2, Class D and E, emphasis mine). In practice this means that planning permission is almost always required alongside pavement channels, although there have been calls to change this.

Why won't my local authority let me have a pavement channel?

Most UK highway authorities do not permit pavement channels, although the Pavement Channel Grant announced in July 2025 might see minds changing throughout 2025-2026. Highway authorities are custodians of pavements ("footways"), and therefore have to consider the risk they bear from dangerous cable use, channel defects, and the possibility that all the pavement channels in their area become redundant in the long term, entailing removal costs. This risk must be balanced with the risks of climate change, and the driveway divide giving people an incentive to trail cables over the footway in an unregulated way.

London Councils, who advise all the boroughs of London, published guidance for London boroughs days after the Pavement Channel Grant was released. It contains nearly six pages (13-18) on challenges of channels. Please read this report before contacting your highway authority about pavement channels.

With thanks to the good work of London Councils, here are the key questions your highway authority must answer before saying yes to pavement channels:

• Accessibility: Can people with physical disabilities use pavement channels?
• Earthing considerations: Can we be 100% sure people will not get electrocuted by power coming through pavement channels?
• Footway and streetscape impact: Do we really want loads of plastic channels throughout our highways? What if our highways are historic?
• Lack of national direction or standards: Do we follow Authority X, who are more lenient as to electrical risk, or Authority Y, who take the exclusion zones by the letter of the law?
• Notice the difference between the Office for Zero Emission Vehicles' guidance and London Councils' guidance.
• Groundworks and reinstatement: Can we be sure that channels won't cause a problem for other utilities and our own highway maintenance teams?
• Highway safety: Can we be sure that drivers will charge in a safe way?
• Liability and insurance: Can we be sure that we won't have to pay out due to injury? If we have insurance requirements of users, can we ensure they continue to meet them into the future?
• Obsolescence: Have we got a clear protocol in the case of moving home? How do we decommission unused channels?
• Parking disputes: Will we bring trouble on ourselves or our communities because of a sense of entitlement to parking?
• Planning permission: Can our planning teams manage the planning side of this?
• Property constraints: Can we have a clear and watertight set of criteria for eligibility, to avoid installing channels where earthing is a problem, residents are in above-ground flats, there is grass between the channel and the footway, or the property is on a junctions?
• Public EVI impacts: Are we undermining our contracts for public chargepoints by permitting a cheaper, more convenient alternative?
• Resource and cost implications: How can we pay for assessment of applications, installation, ongoing inspections and maintenance, administration, and - crucially - enforcement to ensure safety?

Costs and grants

Chargepoint grant for on-street households

Pavement Channel Grant (England)

Planning permission

Pavement channel manufacturers

Kerbo Charge

Charge Gully

Gul-e

Pavecross

Cross-pavement solutions beside channels

Cable protectors

Few highway authorities explicitly permit residents to trail bare EV cables over the pavement as some people do with vacuum cleaners to reach their car.

However, some such as Hampshire County Council and Manchester City Council give explicit guidance on how best to use cable protectors.

Some highway authorities which object to trailing cables over the pavement (either with or without a cable cover) may seek enforcement to prevent it. Enforcement can be complicated because of the temporary nature of trailing cables and a legal grey area around Section 162 of the Highways Act 1980:

As a result, often highway authorities neither enforce against trailing cables nor condone their use.

Reputable home charger installers are reluctant to install chargers in the absence of planning permission and authority permission where required. They often ask you to obtain highway authority permission, which can be difficult to get even if the highway authority has no intention of enforcing against you.

There is an argument that if people are going to put cables across the street anyway, then a controlled way is better than an uncontrolled way. The difference in local authority eyes is that all the liability sits with the resident if they go ahead in an unsanctioned way.

Trojan Home

Trojan Energy produce flat chargepoint sockets, flush to the pavement, close to the kerb. As seen in Brent, Barnet and a few other London boroughs, Trojan's initial goal was to install public chargers without cluttering the street.

However, Trojan have now pitched to market their home-connected Trojan Home solution as their first option. Trojan Home chargepoints connect to a domestic electricity supply via a permanent cable running underground beneath the pavement.

Trojan Home is newer than the public charging Trojan Hub, but several authorities have signed up to trials.

While Trojan Home is a cross-pavement solution, it does not put you in charge of your tariffs. Trojan operate a subscription model. One advantage over standard pavement channels is that the subscription allows you to charge at other Trojan chargepoints if the space outside your home is taken.

Overhead solutions

ChargeArm and Nodum are the main proponents of overhead solutions to pass cables from houses to cars. Highway authorities are in general dismissive of such solutions because of the risk to safety of either the cable or the overhead apparatus falling upon the public footway.

You may have seen people come up with improvised overhead solutions, such as tying cables around signposts or trees. Highway authorities are very likely to object to this, and may seek enforcement if they can fund it. As with cable protectors, there is an argument that if people are going to do it anyway, then a controlled way is better than an uncontrolled way.