Parking, roads and transport

If you have an electric vehicle but do not have off-street parking, you could get a grant of up to £3,500 to safely charge your vehicle without trailing cables across the pavement.

The grant can fund solutions such as charging gullies (cable channels in the pavement) and pop-up chargers. These would connect to your home charge point, which you must already have or be in the process of getting.

This grant is a pilot funded by the Scottish Government. Because the grant is a pilot, it may or may not be available in the future.

This grant contributes to Renfrewshire’s Plan for Net Zero by lowering transport carbon emissions.

You can apply for the grant if you:

• live in Renfrewshire
• have an electric vehicle
• have access to a home charge point (an electric vehicle charger) but do not have off-street parking.

The grant is funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust.

You should read about the grant on the Energy Saving Trust website before you apply. This is where you can find all the details about the grant.

1. Once you’ve read about the grant on the Energy Saving Trust website, you should get a quote from an installer to use as evidence of how much the work will cost.

2. Before applying for the grant, you must apply for a road opening permit through the council. This permit gives you our permission to do the work.

   You can apply for the permit yourself, but many people ask the installer who will be doing the work to include the cost of the permit in their quote.

   If your grant application is successful, then part of the grant will go to you or the installer (whoever paid for the permit) to cover the cost of the permit. If your grant application is not successful, then you will not be able to get a refund for the permit cost.

   Apply for a road opening permit

3. Once you have a quote and a permit, then you can apply for the grant.

   Apply for the cross-pavement charging grant (Energy Saving Trust website)

Applications for this grant are now closed.

The grant is delivered by the Energy Saving Trust, not Renfrewshire Council.

The Energy Saving Trust will usually let you know the outcome of your application within 8 working days.

Email the Energy Saving Trust at crosspavementgrant@est.org.uk if you have any questions about the grant.

Find out about cycling and walking routes in Renfrewshire.

A disabled persons’ parking space is an area marked on the road to reserve parking for people who have a Blue Badge.

You can find them at:

• on street pay and display metered areas, such as those in Paisley town centre
• car parks, including those at shops, offices, and flats
• on residential streets outside Blue Badge holders’ homes.

You must display your Blue Badge at all times when you’re parked in a disabled persons’ parking space. 

You could be fined if you’re not authorised to use the disabled persons’ parking space.

This is enforced under the Disabled Persons’ Parking Places (Scotland) Act 2009.

You can apply to have a disabled persons’ parking space installed on the road outside your home, organisation, or in a car park.

A disabled persons’ parking space can be used by anyone displaying a Blue Badge and not just the person who applied for it to be installed. This includes the disabled parking space outside your house.

You can apply for a disabled parking space outside your home if you: 

• have a valid Blue Badge
• are the driver of a private vehicle or are assisted by a carer who is the driver of a private vehicle, and live at the address stated in your application
• have registered and keep the vehicle at the address stated in your application
• have difficulty getting a parking space on the public road
• do not have an allocated space in a car park
• do not have a driveway or other off-road parking area next to your property, such as a garage or lock up. 

We cannot provide a disabled persons’ parking space just for a driver to pick someone up or drop someone off.

Organisations

Organisations that do not have a private car park can apply to request an on street disabled space for the use by their customers, users, and staff.

Private car parks

Organisations that own, share or manage private car parks may apply to have their disabled spaces made enforceable. 

Every 2 years, we advertise in the press for organisations to apply if they would like us to enforce disabled person’s parking spaces in their car park. 

Information on how to apply is explained in the advert.

We’ll promote the necessary traffic order and, subject to objections, will make the order enforceable by our parking attendants. 

New developments

We’ll make arrangements with developers who have included off-street advisory disabled persons’ parking spaces within any new developments.

We’re required to do this within 3 months of any planning permission being granted.

If you’re applying for a disabled parking space outside your home, you’ll need to provide:

• a copy of your Blue Badge
• your name
• your address
• your email address
• your telephone number
• proof that the vehicle you use is registered and kept at your address – this can be a V5C, bill of sale, or motability agreement letter.

You should attach copies of your documents as photos or scans with your application.

If you’re applying for a disabled parking space outside your home

Apply for a disabled persons’ parking space

If you’re applying on behalf of an organisation without a car park

Organisations that do not have a private car park can request an on street disabled space for use by their customers, users, and staff by emailing ei@renfrewshire.gov.uk.

If you need help to apply, phone our Customer Services at 0300 300 0300:

• Monday to Thursday from 8:45am to 4:45pm
• Friday from 8:45am to 3:55pm.

We’ll contact you by email to let you know your application has been received straight away. 

We’ll then assess your documents and email you to tell you if your application has been accepted or not.

It can take up to 12 weeks for us to complete the process for your disabled persons’ parking place.

We’ll visit the site to confirm the location for the parking space. You do not need to be at home when the site visit takes place. 

The location is usually where you have requested in your application. If not, we'll contact you to discuss a suitable alternative. 

We’ll then ask our contractor to mark the disabled parking space on the street. We’ll give the contractor your contact details if they need you to move your car.

The parking place will be marked on the street with lines, along with the word ‘DISABLED’.

The disabled persons’ parking place is only advisory at this time. This means that you can use it, but we cannot enforce it yet. 

To make the parking place enforceable, we create a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO).

This is a legal document that undergoes public consultation and when made, allows parking attendants to enforce the disabled parking space.

We aim to process a TRO every 6 months. 

Once the TRO is in place, we’ll install a 'Disabled badge holders only' sign at the parking place.

Parking attendants can then issue penalties to any drivers caught using the parking place who do not display a Blue Badge.

There is no cost to apply to get a disabled persons’ parking space installed outside your home, organisation, or in a car park.