Electric car owners' shock at pornographic photos on hacked website

The website displayed on the council's signs has been hacked, and users found themselves directed to a graphic flashing porn site.

The matter was raised by the County Press and the council is now working to cover up the signage.

An Isle of Wight Council spokesperson said “We are saddened to learn that a third-party web address displayed on our electric vehicle (EV) signage appears to have been hacked and thank the County Press for bringing it to our attention.

“The chargepoints were originally part of the Chargepoint Genie network, but ownership was transferred and they became part of the GeniePoint network. The displayed web address had a redirect to new website, so until now had not been an issue.

“The council website has the new geniepoint.co.uk link and is up to date.

“A council officer will be visiting the EV signage today and tomorrow to ensure the third party web address is covered up."

“The council would like to apologise to anyone that found the inappropriate web content and for any inconvenience from chargepoints out of action.”

Electric car owners raised the issue with the County Press because they couldn't get the chargepoint at Cross Street Car Park in Newport to work.

One reader reported it on Sunday and others were still struggling to use it on Monday.

The council spokesperson said: “The Cross Street chargepoint was showing as ‘available’ (meaning it is operational) on zap-map.com yesterday and this morning (Tuesday).

"Chargepoints can be out of service for a short period of time before being remotely rebooted, so this could be the issue with it not working.

“We are aware of the unreliability of some of the chargepoints in council car parks and will be replacing these with new chargepoints over the next few months.

“The council would like to apologise to anyone that found the inappropriate web content and for any inconvenience from chargepoints out of action.”