Imagine being so sensitive about a wall mounted charger and/or cables across the pavement when the pavement and street look like that. The bins will hide a charger neatly, and the pavement is simply patchwork.

Councils and planners in UK need to be replaced. I’d say “give their head a shake” but they challenge USA HOA for stupidity a lot of the time.

It's an accessibility issue, mainly. And very faintly a safety issue, and also owners of the cables risk getting them damaged by something with steel/solid wheels (like an industrial bin or delivery trolley) running over their cables.

Other councils have suggested cutting a groove across the footpath to lay a cable in, which seems like a fairly acceptable solution. 20 minutes work with a concrete saw, tap a channel with a flip top lid in, done. Or even just the groove - a 3/4" groove is enough for a cable and fine for wheelchairs and etc to pass over.

I’m not questioning the accessibility - but the absolute state of the pavement already is a huge accessibility issue; it’s difficult to accept the council’s point when they have surely failed to maintain the pavements. Everything sucks here.

That image looks like a tripping hazard.

They need a wider rectangular conduit with a very gentle slope painted yellow and black. Something like you'd see at a construction site or a concert.

There's no problem if you do it right. This is permanent infrastructure. Treat it as such.

Edit: zoomed-in it actually looks like the right thing, but that it's sticking up on the right looks like the thing that's going to cause me to trip. I guess it just needs to be heavier material.

Did you see the pavement either side of the trip hazard? The whole thing is a trip hazard.