And this one is entitlement.
A man who was banned from charging his electric car at home said it is disgusting’ he has been forced to get a new motor.
Forced?
He does not have a driveway so his car would have to have been charged while parked on the street.
Council officials refused to budge with officials insisted an electric cable across the pavement to his electric vehicle would be a ‘trip hazard’.
Actually, they have a point. But as no one forced him to buy an EV, knowing that he had no private driveway in which to install the necessary charging point, his problem is entirely self inflicted. No one is forcing him to do anything.
So the exasperated father-of-three decided to solve his charging crisis himself.
However he has lost £7,000 after trading in his original car for an orange Fiat hybrid.
Actions meet consequences.
Mr Kelsall told MailOnline: ‘It’s shocking in this day and age that I have to come up with a solution to this.
Well, no, not really. You chose to buy an EV, you are responsible for it. No one else is. Any solutions are your responsibility, not the council.
‘I mean electric cars are part of the solution to global warming and helping the planet.
Um, nope.
‘Yet the council are standing in the way of progress and want to stop me doing the right thing.
I think you will find that they are standing in the way of members of the public tripping up and hurting themselves as a consequence of you and others littering the public pavements with a plethora of cables – because if you do it, so will others. This is one of those rare occasions when I am with the council. Injuries as a result of trips is a foreseeable consequence here. One solution is the installation of kerbside chargers, but why should council tax payers cough up for your equipment?
‘So now I’ve had to trade in my electric one for a hybrid so I’ve lost £7,000 in equity.
Oh dear, how sad, never mind.
‘It’s disgusting really that I’ve had to do this and the council have ignored my pleas.
I love how everything is ‘disgusting’ these days.
‘All they kept saying was that to run a cable over the pavement from my house was a trip hazard.
Which it is.
‘But you should look at the state of the pavement on our road.
‘There’s trip hazards everywhere with bumps in the road or roots growing out of trees.’
So maybe adding to it is not a good idea?
Speaking by his new car, the former Kwik Fit manager said: ‘I’m not doing this for myself but for others who will also have to go through this.
How magnanimous.
‘I did think about suing the council and I have spoken to my MP.
‘Thw[sic] rules need changing for people like me who don’t have a driveway.
And there you have it – the government needs to do something. As if it hasn’t done enough already. If you want an EV, then at least look into the implications before you part with your money. Whining about it afterwards demonstrates a lack of forethought.
Michael Dolan, 73, who lives opposite him, said: ‘I support him but I don’t think he’s going to change the council’s mind.
‘This road is full of old people and they could trip over a cable.’
The retired engineer, who has worked in Siberia and Argentina after the 1982 Falklands War, said: ‘Mind you, he is right.
‘This needs fixing as electric cars are the future.’
The market says different. One day EVs will be looked upon in the same way as the Betamax recorder, or even VCRs generally – or, perhaps, more pertinently, the Sinclair C5. In the meantime, buy one if that is what you want, but don’t expect everyone else to accommodate your poor purchasing decisions.
He wasn’t forced to sell the car just because he couldn’t charge it at his home. I’m sure there are plenty of other places to charge electric cars in Oldham.
But he feels ‘unsafe’ charging it there…. Why, god only knows.
You can’t really expect the public to consider the practicality of ev’s when the government doesn’t consider that itself.
Well, yes, basic common sense seems to be the product of a bygone age.
It’s no longer common.
Common sense. So rare it’s a superpower.
He’s lucky to be able to park outside his house. Some times I can but other times I’m about 500 yds down the road, would need a very long cable.
If I leave my usual parking spot outside of normal working hours, it won’t be there when I get back. It’s dog eat dog when it comes to parking around here and two neighbours with three cars apiece doesn’t help.
Kwikfit manager? Don’t they mean “unnecessary addtional work promoter”?
I would have thought it obvious that having lots of cables crossing pavements was a total non starter. Did he not realise that one of the main problems with EVs is that many people cannot charge them at home; he should have known that he was one of them. He may have been a Kwik Fit manager but he sounds a bit dim.
I think that’s one of the KPIs for a KwikFit manager, TBF….
Is that Pictures of Sad People After Doing Something Stupid website still up?
Many decades ago people who parked cars on the roadside were required to show a lit ‘parking light’ at night. This often drained the battery so people would run wires into their houses and power the light from there. But… they used to run the wire from an upstairs window to the car passing above the pavement at a decent height.
And there’s the difference between then and now. Back then people considered the well being of others before their own immediate needs.
I remember a story about a company that makes little channels that can be installed in the pavement to run a cable through.
I don’t know if they’re big enough for a decent cable or just a standard 13A, but he could look into this.
But no, government must do something to solve problem government created.
How about government fuck off and leave us alone to sort ourselves out?
In this case, it would result in him being sued for injuries sustained sooner or later, so it would sort itself out.
“But he could look into this”
And when he finds out the cost he will expect the council (i.e. us taxpayers) to fund it for him….
For those who are BBC-refusers (I salute your resolve!) Kerbo-Charge got an investment on ‘Dragons’ Den’ earlier this year and there are pilot projects around the country:
https://www.falmouthpacket.co.uk/news/24531989.cornish-town-first-electric-vehicle-charging-solution/
…although I’m not sure the inventors fully took on board the problem in busy areas of getting the parking space which corresponds with the end of your attachment, so to speak.
(Auto-correct rather creepily insisted on changing it to Keir-o-charge)
There is a certain mentality out there that believes that all of their problems are some one else’s fault and, by extension, some one else’s responsibility to sort out. This guy seems to be the personification of that kind of thinking.
When I was younger I made some stupid and bad choices but I owned my mistakes and took the responsibility to sort my own problems out. Now that I’m an old git I’m a lot wiser and I don’t make too many stupid mistakes. This guy looks old enough to know better, not a teenager or early twenties guy with limited life experience. Is it possible that the blame other people mentality leads to people just not learning from their mistakes and consequently still doing stupid stuff when they are in their fifties?
I sympathise with him. The council made me get rid of my chieftain tank and wouldn’t allow me to park it on the street in front of my house and then when I replaced it with a helicopter, guess what? Yep – no helicopter parking in the middle of the road (needed because of the rotor blades). What is the world coming to when you can’t do what you like, eh?
That, in case anyone gets hot under the collar was sarcasm. The Internet needs a sarcasm font to alert the gullible.