Dora Black / 21 February 2025 / Categories: City, Transportation & Parking

Leicester City Centre Parking

And Electric vehicle spaces

This is a rant in general, it is not specific to Leicester City Council but there is nothing more frustrating than searching for city centre parking, when you only need 30 minutes so not worth it to park in an NCP but all the street parking is taken except for all the electric vehicle spaces.

It’s illegal to park in an EV space apparently and you can be fined up to £100 for parking a regular petrol diesel vehicle in an electric vehicle spot.

You can even be fined for putting an electric vehicle in the space and not charging I understand.

It is tricky for councils balancing Westminster led initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions and encourage consumers to move over the electric vehicles whilst recognising the state of the economy and in socially more deprived areas like Leicester, a one size fits all approach perhaps isn’t the best.

Nothing worse than having to circle for over an hour in a 2 hour no return parking area when there are 5 spaces all unoccupied and not likely to be occupied anytime soon.

There must be a better way for councils to offer the charging stations EV owners need but also to be able to use the spaces when not being used to charge vehicles for petrol and diesel owners to park.

I missed my meeting as there was literally no street parking except the EV spaces. The parking was so grim this person risked a ticket, half in and half out, when there were literally 4 or 5 spaces behind no one could use.