Building materials licence

When you need a building materials licence

If you want to place building materials on any part of a public street or footpath, you need to apply to us for a building materials licence.

The licence is usually valid for 1 calendar month.

To extend this period, you need to contact us before the licence expires. Email us at transportation-admin@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or phone 020 8921 6600.

If possible, place building materials on private land. If you do this, you do not usually need a licence.

Costs

Licence fee

The licence fee is currently £191.

Refundable deposit

You will also need to pay a refundable deposit. We'll assess the amount when we visit the site.

Site inspection fee

When you make your application, you'll need to pay a non-refundable site inspection fee of £79.

Apply for a licence

You need to complete our online applications form. In the form, you'll need to provide:

• company name
• company address
• your name
• your phone number
• site address
• date the work will start
• duration of the work

You'll need to pay the site inspection fee by credit or debit card when you apply.

Processing your application

After you've applied and paid the site inspection fees, we'll process your application.

1. One of our inspectors will inspect the site and decide how much refundable deposit you need to pay to cover any damage that may be caused.
2. We'll contact you to let you know the amount payable.
3. When we've received your deposit payment and licence fee, we'll issue you with your licence document.
4. When you've completed your building work, contact us again to let us know.
5. Our inspector will revisit and inspect your site.
6. If there's no damage to the street, we'll refund your deposit. But if there is damage, we'll deduct the cost of repairs from your deposit.

Conditions of the licence

We'll tell you all the conditions attached to the licence when we issue it. 

Conditions include:

• a single licence allows storage of materials not exceeding 3 metres long, 1.5 metres wide and 1 metre high (consult us if larger quantities are involved)
• materials placed in, or partly on the street, require at least 4 traffic cones on the approach side to guide traffic past the storage area
• during hours of darkness, in poor daytime visibility and in bad weather, you must place flashing amber street danger lamps between each cone to indicate the site area
• if our contractors are called out to the site to make it safe, we'll charge you for this
• the building materials must not obstruct or interfere with street drainage or any public utility company's apparatus