"A cable laying across the top of a public pavement?
That doesn`t good to me. Neither for pedestrians, pushchairs, etc, nor the cable itself.
Some form of channeling, with a flush cover isn`t too difficult or expensive for a permanent fixture is it?"
There are quite a few YT vids of people with no off road parking charging their EV’s with cable laying across pavements. It’s going to be a minefield for sure.