Five on-street charging bays would go and one would move, three on Grahame Park Way. Objections close 15 October; Barnet's charger total is already falling.

Barnet Council is proposing to take out five on-street electric vehicle charging bays and move a sixth, with each stretch of kerb going back to the parking restriction it had before the charger arrived.

Three of the five are on Grahame Park Way in Colindale, the road that runs past the RAF Museum. The others are at 33 Dale Grove in North Finchley and at Panavia Court on Bristol Avenue in Colindale, the street where the council’s own highways team is based. A bay outside No.9 The Crescent in High Barnet would not be removed but moved a few doors along.

The proposal is in a statutory notice published on 10 September under scheme reference SCR730. Anyone who wants to object has until 15 October.

What the notice proposes

The council says that “amendments to the on-street electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure have necessitated” the changes. It does not say in the notice what those amendments are, or whether the charging units themselves are being taken away.

Location What happens to the bay
No.9 The Crescent EN5 (Chasewood) Repositioned to outside No.13 (Monkenhurst)
33 Dale Grove N12 Permit holders only, Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm
Grahame Park Way NW9, opposite the RAF Museum entrance Business permit holders and permit parking, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm
Grahame Park Way NW9, side of 18 Lancaster Close Business permit holders and pay to park, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm
Grahame Park Way NW9, opposite Valentina Avenue Pay to park, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm
Panavia Court, Bristol Avenue NW9 Resident permit holders only, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm

Each bay is one space. Four of the six are in NW9, and the Grahame Park Way three sit within a few hundred metres of one another on the same road.

The orders are made under sections 6, 45, 46, 49 and 51 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (the notice).

The borough’s public charger count has been going down, not up

The Department for Transport counts public charging devices in every local authority four times a year, using data from Zapmap. Barnet’s count has fallen this year.

  • 1 January 2026: 1,206 devices
  • 1 April 2026: 1,164 devices
  • 1 July 2026: 1,167 devices

That is a net loss of 39 devices in six months. The count covers every public charger in the borough, from rapid units at retail parks to lamp-post sockets on residential streets, so it is a much wider measure than the six council bays in this notice. But it is the only comparable figure there is, and the direction is down (DfT table EVCI0102).

On 1 July, Barnet had 288.1 public chargers per 100,000 people. We ranked all 33 London boroughs from the same table, and that puts Barnet 15th, in the middle of the pack and well behind Camden and Brent, though comfortably ahead of Enfield, Haringey and Harrow.

Bar chart of public electric vehicle chargers per 100,000 people on 1 July 2026: Camden 377.5 with 819 devices, Brent 366.9 with 1,295, Barnet 288.1 with 1,167, Hertsmere 228.7 with 252, Enfield 137.1 with 449, Haringey 135.3 with 357 and Harrow 120.0 with 325

By total devices rather than per head, Barnet is 10th of 33. Westminster leads with 2,893, followed by Hammersmith and Fulham on 2,603 and Tower Hamlets on 2,574.

Why a bay matters more than a number

The five bays being removed are on-street, which is the part of the network that matters to drivers without a driveway. If you have off-street parking you charge at home overnight. If you do not, a kerbside bay within walking distance of your front door is the difference between owning an electric car and not.

That is what the replacements change. A bay that reverts to “business permit holders and pay to park, Monday to Friday 9am to 4pm” is still a parking space, but it is no longer a place a resident can plug in.

What it means for you

If you charge on the street anywhere in Colindale, North Finchley or High Barnet, the notice is worth reading before the window shuts.

  • The deadline is 15 October 2026, 35 days from the notice’s publication on 10 September.
  • Objections and comments must be in writing and must quote reference SCR730.
  • Send them by email to parking.consultations@barnet.gov.uk, through Barnet TraffWeb, or by post to The Design Team, Highways Section, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale, London NW9 4EW.
  • The council’s statement of reasons can be requested from the same address for 21 days from publication.

The council’s own live map of traffic orders and consultations is Barnet TraffWeb, which is where the proposal will sit alongside every other restriction on a council road. Every live closure and parking change in the borough is in our Barnet roadworks and travel page, and the borough’s controlled zones and charges are in parking in Barnet.

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