A MOTORIST has slammed the council for charging parking fees for people using its electric vehicle charge points.

Alison Read parked up and sat in her car as she charged it in the Deane House car park, in Taunton, on Monday (April 18).

After a while a parking attendant informed her and another motorist in a Tesla vehicle using the adjoining charge point that they needed a parking ticket.

Alison, who works in Wellington, said: "I cannot believe the council of all people is charging to park when they should be encouraging electric cars.

"I spoke to the Tesla driver, who was a tourist stopping off, and he had never heard such nonsense.

"We are all being pushed into buying electric cars.

"I have one for work and I depend on the network as I live in a flat and therefore cannot have a charger at home."

She unplugged her car and drove off rather than pay the £1.20 hourly parking fee.

"The parking warden said to me, 'You wouldn't sit in another space and not pay'," said Alison, who said she was aware of the parking fee as it is clearly signed.

"I was like, 'That's different. The only reason I'm here is to charge my car'.

"I understand if I wanted to go off somewhere then it’s classed as a public car park, but in other towns you don’t pay to park when using a charger.

"The chargers usually have a 60/90-minute timer and if you go over that it costs £10, purely to stop people using it as a way to get ‘free parking’ and sitting on chargers for hours."

Alison says there is only one charge point at a supermarket in Bridgwater, where she lives, and that hasn't worked since Christmas, which is why she tops up daily in Taunton.

A Somerset West and Taunton spokesperson said: "As part of our commitment for the council and the area as a whole to work towards becoming carbon neutral by 2030, we are encouraging the use of electric vehicles and have recently installed a network of electric vehicle charge points in our car parks across the district.

"To ensure our charge points are available for multiple customers throughout the day, we have limited the stay to three hours each, during which time normal parking charges apply as denoted by the clearly marked signage."