Roads Policy Review 2022

Street naming and numbering: The onus should be on developers to ensure there is a street number on every home they build as soon as the home is complete. The naming of streets should all be individual without duplicates eg. Greenacres Road, Greenacres Place, Greenacres etc etc. Finding the correct address when there are so many is very difficult particularly for emergency services, when time is of the essence.

EV charging manual: for many residents, the purchase of an electric vehicle is a major decision. An important consideration will be the availability of working charging points compared to the availability of petrol stations. The provision of public charging points in Aberdeenshire must be proactive.
The caption to figure 1.1 mentions local authorities and Transport Scotland in the same sentence and then refers to 'them'. Who does 'them' refer to?
EV charging Policy, section 4, says Local Roads Managers shall be responsible for compliance... What powers do these managers have?

Enforcement of Roads and Traffic Authority Powers Manual: there is no mention of a procedure for members of the public to report infringements. There is no mention of any timescale for dealing with infringements other than an expiry time-limit of 91 days. What do you plan to do about vehicles parked on the pavement after Section 50 of the Transport (Scotland) Act 2019 has been enabled by a commencement order?

Signing of tourist facilities and attractions
Accept necessity to restrict volume of signage on routes however what has been provided on the AWPR is wholly inadequate for regular users and the tourism market. The lack of wayfinding brown signage is desperately damaging to our city and shire tourism industry. With dual carriageway multi-attraction sign posts costing c.£17-£40k (design and install) per sign it is highly unlikely that this situation will improve without additional support. A strategy which considers a multi-destination signage 'co-operative' approach would reduce number of required signs and support delivery of increased footfall, dwell time and as a result economic growth across the region.

The rules about not allowing cables across the pavement to charge electric vehicles mean that we, and the rest of the people on our street, will simply not be able to practically use electric vehicles.

Could public charging points be installed on residential streets where most houses don't have off street parking? If not, then I think there are large numbers of people for whom electric vehicles are now completely off the agenda. I say this as someone who works on environmental issues and takes environmental responsibility very seriously, so I'm very sad and frustrated to be in this position.

Private on-street charging:
In Stonehaven, there is currently only one charger working (i.e. station charger and Viewmont both out of order). The one that is working (market square) was broken for about 6 weeks until about a week ago and was busy all last night.
How do you propose I use my car?
I understand that in an ideal world we would have a choice about leading cables across the footpath, but surely you can see that we're not in that ideal world? Pragmatism must prevail.

Really? 2 out of 3 chargers in Stoney are not working. The others being used. And now you tell me I can't charge at home? Really?

Electric vehicle charging - 4.1 On street charging
In regard to the costs subsection, this is hypocritical as Aberdeenshire Council charge for parking on top of charging, making the use of a slow charger in a pay and display car park something like twice as expensive as they are permitting other operators to charge. For town visitors this may be fair enough, but if you live in the surrounding streets it's very unfair to have to pay to park at home, while a visitor parks for free outside your house.
They also round up the costs for charity, without giving an opt out, and without saying what the charity is. This is actually illegal, as I understand it.

Electric vehicle charging - 4.1 On-Street charging.

To begin with, it's catch 22. The charging infrastructure will not be available until there are more EVs and nobody will buy an EV until they can charge it conveniently.
Aberdeenshire Council need to be leading this, particularly given the time it takes to organise the installation of a public charger, set against the rapid overall growth of EV ownership.
Off street charging ( i.e charging in council owned car parks, as per your policy) is not desirable overnight - cars may attract vandalism and insurance premiums are correspondingly higher. Recognising this, the UK government have introduced grants to provide chargers on residential streets, aimed at the needs of residents without driveways. Not only have Aberdeenshire not yet applied for such grants, it sounds like they have no intention of applying. This is a complete dereliction of duty.

Electric Vehicle Charging manual - 3. Private on-street charging

The problems posed by leading cables across the footpath are much more easily overcome than the problems it solves.

Given that the council can only say you don’t consent to cables crossing the footway, and can't practically ensure it's not done - people still need to get to school, work etc when their are no available public chargers - your duty here must be to facilitate doing it safely.

The picture of the car charging with its lead across the pavement is from a Hampshire document. In the original context, it is followed by a picture of a car with a cable protector over the cable and a green tick in the corner. Other councils are piloting cable gullies. In contrast, Aberdeenshire's approach is to neglect the problem.

And what about sustainability? The National Grid state that EV charging needs to be done off-peak. Given that Aberdeenshire council do not plan to provide a public charger for everyone who has no driveway, facilitating home charging is the only way for people to charge off-peak.

Another factor is cost. From your own figures, domestic charging is likely to cost 50%- 80% the cost of using a public charger, and public chargers often have parking charges on top. How can it be fair that those without driveways will perpetually have to pay twice as much for their transport as those living in more expensive houses (who also got an interest free loan to buy their EV and a grant to install a charger)? It is hard to imagine a more inequitable policy.

You are erecting barriers where you aim to be reducing them. By trialling safe ways of leading cables across the pavement, you can, at a stroke, at no cost to the council, ensure that (off peak) charging capacity keeps up with electric vehicle uptake.

Street Naming and Numbering - would not like to see any change in existing names however there are discrepancies ie West Street Gardens on Google appears when looking for West Street. Numbering has its problems. I live in a 3 storey house which is numbered 16a but always comes up as Flat A 16 etc. Numbering has to be well thought out! My residence has never been a flat and it does cause problems. Not even sure if this can be corrected considering how information is sold on these days!

Electric Vehicle Charging - you have already noted problems for ‘little villages’ etc. If everyone in my village had an electric car there wouldn’t be enough room for charging. Would people get up during the night to disconnect, move their car, ready for someone else to charge?!
Charging points for commuters takes up space ALL day for other users who would require charging! The same principle applies to specific charging units for commuters in cities who will utilise chargers all day, disregarding any others who need them.
Where do people living in high-rise blocks charge their cars?
Would we overload the grid?! I would like to see more information on how the entire driving population will deal with the full implementation of the ‘charging’ issue.

EV Charging Point
Having recently purchased and awaiting delivery of my EV, it would be very much advantageous to have a point or points of charge sited I.e. in Tarves square for the use of the ever growing number of EV’s in the village. Over time the number of these vehicles will undoubtedly increase to the benefit of the owners and the environment to meet the proposed deadlines in place.
Thank you.