Council criticised by environmental group over rise in car club fees

Last year Haringey Council tripled its fee per bay for car clubs and almost doubled the cost for electric vehicle flexible car club schemes, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Haringey Council says it’s “committed” to expanding its car sharing scheme – despite tripling fees for normal cars.

The comment came from a spokesperson for the local authority last week after criticism was raised by campaigners at Clean Cities.

Last year Haringey Council more than tripled its fee per bay car clubs from £240 to £800 – and almost doubled the cost for electric vehicle flexible car club schemes, rising from £753.20 to £1,342.

Car Clubs allow members to use vehicles without having to own them or pay for their upkeep, insurance or residents’ parking charges.

On its website the local authority describes car clubs in positive terms, saying they “help with parking issues and cut down CO2 emissions”.

The council also argues that “many Car Club members stop owning a car when they join” – or choose not to buy one in the first place if there is a car club nearby.

Clean Cities is part of Transport & Environment, a Europe-wide non-governmental organisation (NGO) focused on sustainable travel.

Its campaign manager Zak Bond criticised Haringey Council and other local authorities who’ve carried out similar increases to charges for club schemes over the past year.

Bond argued that “London’s net zero pathway requires nearly half of all car kilometres and a third of van kilometres to be electric within the next four years”.

He added: “Without strong local authority leadership and action in the next electoral term, these targets will not be achieved.”

The local authority declared a climate emergency in 2019. On its website it says it has since marked climate change as one of its “top priorities”, reflected by the adoption of the Haringey Climate Change Action Plan in 2021.

A spokesperson for the council responded to questions from the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about its decision to significantly increase its car club fees. They said the local authority is “committed to expanding car club provision as a key part of our plans to support sustainable travel, less congested streets and cleaner air”.

The spokesperson added that the fee hikes were “benchmarked” with other London boroughs to “ensure the scheme is fully self-funding, enabling growth without pressure on council budgets and securing long-term agreements with operators that provide stability and improve service quality”.

They described the local authorities decision as part of a wider, “sustainable approach” that will also include making contracts with car sharing companies that have “a strong emphasis on innovation”

The latter largely appears to mean mean companies who are planning to increase the proportion of electric cars it their fleets.

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