Monday 11 July 2011

You Can Lead A Horse To Water…

…but you can’t make him charge his electric car. Or even buy an electric car…
Every new home will have to install an electric car charging point, Salford council has proposed.
This, despite the fact that Green lunacy is being dropped quicker than a hot potato everywhere else...
Developers will also have to provide the facility in new apartment blocks, Salford council in Greater Manchester has ruled.

The council will use planning laws to introduce the edict as part of a drive to spearhead green technology in the city.
That's all peachy, but have they given any thought to the fact that there's nothing to force people to buy an electric car?

Or is that the second phase of the plan?

16 comments:

Shinar's Basket Case said...

...and a miniature wind turbine to power it?

Or is that stage 3?

Curmudgeon said...

Look at it the other way - you can't have an electric car charging point without a parking space. Currently councils take the view that the best way to discourage teh ebil carz is to insist new developments are built with grossly insufficient, or zero, parking.

Tattyfalarr said...

Pre-empting squillions of compensation cases when the right to be an eco freak and own a home with all the bells and whistles built-in...and have everyone else pay for it...has been breached.

Tattyfalarr said...

Should have gone on previous post....

Next up: Lots of hand-wringing and "oh noes" for the desperate plight of the ecologically disadvantaged.

Robert Edwards said...

We should put our heads together to think up some useful applications for these otherwise silly proposals.

Turbocharged fag lighters?

Private Widdle said...

Sorry, Julia....

For a moment I thought you were making a bid for the "Sickest But Funniest Blog Headline Of 2011" award.

[url]http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013181/Gypsy-gang-deliberately-drowned-elderly-pony-lake-horrified-families.html[/url]

Plug In Fun said...

Actually, an external power point is a Good Idea, for powering such things as lawnmowers, strimmers, electrical pleasuring devices for the outdoor inclined, and so on.

But to power an electric car? Um, like a milk float used to need?

And of course, electric vehicles will need a battery disposal service as apparently they don't last forever, which rather kicks the sustainability brigade in the nuts.

(WV= pidyncit = possibly one of the electrical self-pleasure devices I alluded to earlier)

JuliaM said...

@Private Widdle: oh, that one's coming up, never fear!

Captain Haddock said...

"Actually, an external power point is a Good Idea, for powering such things as lawnmowers, strimmers, ... "

Or for the old biddies (like my 83 year old Mum) to charge-up their Mobility Scooters .. y'know, the ones fitted with bull-bars & scythes on the wheels .. ;)

Shinar's Basket Case said...

"Actually, an external power point is a Good Idea, for powering such things as lawnmowers, strimmers, electrical pleasuring devices for the outdoor inclined, and so on."

...think I'll go into the shed and make a garden recliner for the mother in law...

Now where did I put my wire strippers?

Sue said...

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and think things can't get anymore bizarre. They always do.

I dream about living in simpler times, like the dark ages :) when life was about "living".

It has to be preferable to this lunacy!

Lynne said...

They are going to separate me from my Landy over my dead and decaying body. I live in the sticks and am surrounded by low lying land and coastal marshes that tend to flood roads with all this rain we ain't supposed to be getting. Last thing I want is to be in a stalled, ground hugging electric Noddy car sitting in a road dip filled with ten freezing cold inches of run-off from the nearby hill that is seeping into the footwell.

Weekend Yachtsman said...

Do they actually know how electricity is produced?

Just wondering.

microdave said...

"Do they actually know how electricity is produced?"

Er - doesn't it come (free) from a few turbines and solar panels??

Actually having lots of electric cars plugged in is part of the plan to do away with proper power stations. The nutters who think this is perfectly feasible have realised that the wind doesn't always blow, and the sun doesn't always shine, and have already suggested using battery powered vehicles as short term storage to cover these gaps.

So................even if you've managed to work out a route that is possible without running out of juice, you could find the battery is nearly flat as soon as you get in it...

JuliaM said...

"...and a miniature wind turbine to power it?"

Argh! Don't give them ideas!

"Currently councils take the view that the best way to discourage teh ebil carz is to insist new developments are built with grossly insufficient, or zero, parking."

Oooh, good point!

"Actually, an external power point is a Good Idea, for powering such things as lawnmowers, strimmers, electrical pleasuring devices for the outdoor inclined, and so on."

Interesting! Would the connectors be standard, though?

"...think I'll go into the shed and make a garden recliner for the mother in law...

Now where did I put my wire strippers?"


Someone's already been there, done that, got the t-shirt...

JuliaM said...

"Last thing I want is to be in a stalled, ground hugging electric Noddy car sitting in a road dip filled with ten freezing cold inches of run-off from the nearby hill that is seeping into the footwell."

Oh, these electric things are ok for urban environments, but totally unsuitable for rural areas.

Not that that'll stop the 'one size fits all' mentality of the ecofreaks.

"Do they actually know how electricity is produced?"

As microdave points out, it's something they wilfully close their eyes and ears to...