DCC enforcement notice over charging arm

magicbastarder

Apols if this has already been posted. Not sure if any other outlet has picked up the story, but this is paywalled.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2025/07/02/ranelagh-electric-car-owner-ordered-to-remove-unauthorised-charging-arm-by-council/

The unnamed owner in question claims that there are multiple examples of these in the area, but clearly it was his a complaint was made about.

The council are legally required to act on a complaint, and I can see why they wouldn't be keen anyway on people hanging electrical cables over public footpaths.

Allinall

Not sure how they thought they would get away with it.

You can't just erect stuff on public property as you like.

antfin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123597822#Comment_123597822

The arms are erected in the owners front garden and then fold out 2.3m above the pavement to reach the car so not actually erected on public property.

magicbastarder

not actually erected on public property, true, but utilises public property.

in the same way you can't build a roof where the supporting wall is on your property but the roof overhangs your neighbour's property, i guess.

Allinall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123597830#Comment_123597830

That's splitting hairs.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058418598/dcc-enforcement-notice-over-charging-arm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123597830#Comment_123597830

I posted about these many times and I'm always met with laughter.

So much so I offered Nigel Daly a free Planning Application to trial the provisions of these as he was advertising them on his Socials. I was never taken up on it.

They breach a number of laws and bylaws, mainly the height in the front garden is above 1.2m limit for any such structures, therefore need planning. They also over sail the public carriage way, therefore not allowed. There are rules on heights etc, similar to sign posts etc

Then there's the liability if i hurt myself walking down the public path.

Gumbo

And also remember. DCC issuing the Enforcement Notice is because a neighbour complained. They don’t go out looking for these things.

The EN will give the home owner an opportunity to apply for planning to retain it. That will test the councils objectives on whether they want these things overhanging public paths.

magicbastarder

it seems the owner decided to approach the irish times (he is a ranelagh dweller, after all) rather than entering into a discourse with the council. where have we seen this approach before?

He received a letter in March from the council saying the arm is not exempt from planning permission and is therefore “unauthorised”.

It ordered him to remove it within two months.

“We’re in wait-and-see mode, I think they will insist on us taking it down and if they do, I think we will sell the car and buy a diesel or petrol,” he said.

it does not say that he has actually requested retention, it only mentions the enforcement notice and no other action taken by him.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598085#Comment_123598085

So the owner has buried their head in the sand. Similar to the idiots with the EWI in Clondalkin recently. Hoping the papers will save them.

Marcusm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598085#Comment_123598085

There are lots of them around and DCC should be proactively dealing with them. Even worse are the people who use public trees to channel cables from their front gardens out to the street, nailing brackets into the trees etc.

The public charging infrastructure is a joke but this is just entitlement.

magicbastarder

you mean proactively dealing with them as in sending enforcement notices out without needing to wait for complaints, or actively dealing with them in that they should be facilitating people who want them?

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598347#Comment_123598347

Planning Enforcement act on Complaints from the Public. They would need to be reported.

Economics101

What do all the critics expect people who live in houses with no off-street parking to do? WHat constructive and reasonable policies do DCC have to cope with this?

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598543#Comment_123598543

What do all the critics expect people who live in houses with no off-street parking to do?

Accept that you cannot charge your car at home or don't buy an electric car.

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598543#Comment_123598543

I’m not aware of any policies but I do agree that these charge arms are quite intrusive and a liability waiting to happen.

They should be proactively allowing kerbside chargers or placing them there themselves with access for residents on a reduced rate. The same way those same residents get parking permits for the public parking spots at significant discount.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598543#Comment_123598543

are DCC able to set policy? or is that done at a national level?

i suspect the latter.

Gerrymandering reborn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598543#Comment_123598543

Maybe don't by an EV if you don't have the main aspect of it figured out i.e how are you going to charge it

Owner could opt for an PHEV or nissan E power if they wish to have an EV like driving experience without the hassles and stress of charging

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598584#Comment_123598584

i'd say that no matter what the solution is, if DCC had it within their power to implement, it'd create extra admin burden; for example, if they allowed charging at cheap rates for residents with public chargers, who would then police that; if it wasn't policed there'd be traffic chaos in the area with others coming in to avail of cheap rates.

you'd need a charger system which would only allow a subset of credit cards to be used on it, for example - just spitballing here, some other country may have figured out a way to do it.

zg3409

DCC and national policy seems to be DC charging hubs, as it mostly absolves the council of doing anything..

In the UK they have trialled gutter type channels cut into the footpath and in London chargers in street lights are relatively common. They trialled street light based solutions until the trials ended and most were removed.

magicbastarder

i know that the street lights in dublin aren't individually metered - but i guess the chargers would have their own meters built in anyway.

zg3409

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598759#Comment_123598759

Street light based chargers need entire new wiring and typically a new pole and light at the same time. They cannot reuse existing wiring as it cannot handle the load.

Larbre34

The government aren't serious about EVs.

The reason they aren't serious about EVs, is because the agenda of the Green party in the previous government, was to remove private cars off the road altogether, not merely replace ICE with EV.

And so the preparation of the ground for EV adoption; incentives, BIK, the public infrastructure network etc, has always been limp-wristed and half-hearted tokenism.

This issue about domesic charging solutions in older homes is just another instance of where a facile policy has not been adequately thought through and given statutory robustness for all eventualities.

Unless you can park and charge and EV off-road, at night rates, with either a planning exemption given or permission granted, I wouldn't buy any sort of EV in a fit. And this chap is going to lose his shirt on the one he has purchased, because it will have depreciated faster than a Steinway falling from the roof of Liberty Hall.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598347#Comment_123598347

I've never seen one.

Can you link to google maps where there are loads of them.

Must a street full according to that article.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598604#Comment_123598604

Goof question. Irish local authorities have practically no independent power: they act as agents for their majesties in the Custom House.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123598679#Comment_123598679

That;s fine. BUT it's official policy to move to EVs and to ban new ICE cars within a few years.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123599220#Comment_123599220

It is also official policy that one should apply for planning permission for various construction project types: something the homeowner in the original post has not bothered their hole doing!

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123599233#Comment_123599233

OK, I get your point, but if every hhouseholder with a car in D6 were to apply for planning for these contraptions, I can only begin to imagine how much the planning system will get cloged up, with endless appeals and judicial reviews. Be careful what you wish for,

Gumbo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123599220#Comment_123599220

But that’s not at the expense of all other laws. We still need to respect existing laws in place and not make it a free for all.

Economics101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123599249#Comment_123599249

NO. What we need is a coherent Government-led policy on how to cater for car owners who have no off-street parking, whether in terms of reserved access to adjacent charging points or approval for overhead contraptions which meet defined standards, or some other cunning plan. What we have now seems to be nothing from the usual brain-dead civil servants

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123599248#Comment_123599248

So what exactly are you saying? We should be able to ignore planning laws when we think it mightn't suit? The homeowner in the OP is a dick who seems to want the irish Times to fix the problem they are choosing to ignore - exactly the same as the muppets in Kilnamanagh who thought that this would do in a planning application…

When the council told them to draw it properly, they went to the media claiming victimisation (and failing to disclose this publicly available info)…

(taken from @kirving's post in the other thread…

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123234822#Comment_123234822

Red Silurian

There's surely a technological solution where the council can put pedestals on the side of the footpath and tie the usage to domestic meters? If not then these charge arms are probably the way forward and the council should be trying not to go backwards on this one. If the eventual plan is to replace every ICE with an EV then an allowance must be made for these solutions