Construction Management Plans in Southwark
Southwark requires a Demolition and Construction Management Plan with every major planning application, and attaches CMP conditions to smaller schemes that affect neighbours or the highway. The borough publishes no fill-in template — plans are assessed against its Technical Guidance for Demolition and Construction, which sets some of the most detailed monitoring expectations in London.
What Southwark Requires
Southwark’s validation checklist requires a Demolition/Construction Management Plan to be submitted with all major planning applications — schemes of 10 or more homes or 1,000 sq m or more of commercial floorspace — explaining how construction impacts on the environment and neighbours will be managed and reduced. On smaller schemes, the requirement usually arrives as a pre-commencement planning condition: a CMP must be submitted and approved in writing by the council before any works, including demolition, begin.
Unlike some neighbouring boroughs, Southwark does not publish a pro-forma or template. Plans are written from scratch and assessed against the council’s Technical Guidance for Demolition and Construction, prepared by its Environmental Protection Team. That places a premium on knowing what the guidance actually asks for — hoarding specifications, complaints procedures, resident notification, monitoring regimes — because there is no form to prompt for it.
Construction Working Hours in Southwark
Southwark permits construction work — including deliveries, collections, maintenance and cleaning — from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 9am to 2pm on Saturdays, with no working on Sundays or bank holidays. Excessively noisy works that cannot meet noise limits even with best practicable means are restricted to a two-hours-on, two-hours-off pattern (8–10am, 12–2pm and 4–6pm on weekdays; 11am–1pm on Saturdays). Work outside permitted hours needs a short-term “out of hours” Section 61 permission, applied for at least 7 days in advance.
Section 61 Consents and Monitoring on Major Schemes
For major developments, Southwark expects a Section 61 prior consent application (under the Control of Pollution Act 1974) to be submitted to its Environmental Protection Team at least 28 days before works start, with the construction management plan attached. The borough’s guidance also sets explicit monitoring expectations for major schemes:
- Continuous noise monitoring, with a trigger level of 75 dB(A) (15-minute) and an action level of 80 dB(A)
- Continuous vibration monitoring during demolition, piling and groundworks, with a 1 mm/s limit at occupied homes and schools
- Continuous PM10 dust monitoring — all major developments are treated as high risk for dust, and most of the borough is an Air Quality Management Area
- Non-Road Mobile Machinery meeting London’s emission standards and registered on the London NRMM register
Construction Traffic in Southwark
HGV routes must be agreed with Southwark’s Network Management Team, avoiding residential streets and schools, with vehicles entering and leaving in forward gear and no waiting or engine idling near the site. Where a site sits on or near a TfL red route — such as the Old Kent Road (A2) or Jamaica Road — TfL becomes involved, and larger or referable schemes are asked for a Construction Logistics Plan following TfL’s CLP guidance. The council’s guidance also expects construction fleets to meet Euro 6 emission standards.
Fees and Timescales
Southwark charges no separate CMP review fee: the cost is the national discharge-of-conditions application fee (currently £309 per request for most development, £89 for householder schemes), plus any highways licences the site needs — scaffolding and hoarding licences are charged monthly and crane licences daily, so late CMP approval directly delays licence issue. No borough-specific determination timescale is published; in practice we advise allowing up to eight weeks for review and submitting as soon as permission is granted, since Section 61 lead-in times (28 days) run in parallel.
How CMP Construct Helps in Southwark
CMP Construct prepares council-compliant Construction Management Plans across Southwark and more than 20 other London boroughs. We draft most plans within 7-10 working days, submit in the format Southwark Council expects, and handle officer comments through to discharge of your condition. Where your condition also asks for a Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP) or a Construction Logistics Plan (CLP), we produce them as one consistent package. New to the process? Start with our complete guide to Construction Management Plans or see what a CMP costs.
Official Southwark Guidance
The council documents below set out Southwark Council's own requirements. We work to these day to day; they are linked here so you can verify any requirement directly:
- Southwark Technical Guidance for Demolition and Construction
- Southwark full planning application checklists
- Southwark construction noise guidance
- TfL Construction Logistics Plan guidance
Frequently Asked Questions
When does Southwark require a Construction Management Plan?
A Demolition/Construction Management Plan must be submitted with every major planning application in Southwark — 10 or more homes or 1,000 sq m or more of commercial space. For smaller schemes, Southwark typically attaches a pre-commencement condition requiring a CMP to be approved in writing before any works, including demolition, start on site. Statutory undertakers and most construction activity in the borough are also expected to follow the council’s technical guidance.
Does Southwark provide a CMP template or pro-forma?
No. Southwark publishes its Technical Guidance for Demolition and Construction as the reference standard, but leaves the plan itself to the developer’s team. That makes an experienced author more important, not less: the guidance expects specific content — an environmental manager, resident notification and newsletters, complaints procedures, hoarding specifications, noise and dust monitoring regimes — and a plan that misses these gets bounced by the Environmental Protection Team.
What hours can builders work in Southwark?
Permitted hours are 8am–6pm Monday to Friday and 9am–2pm on Saturdays, including deliveries and collections, with no working on Sundays or bank holidays. Excessively noisy operations are limited to alternating two-hour windows within those times. Anything outside permitted hours needs a short-term Section 61 “out of hours” consent from the council, applied for at least a week in advance — late applications are refused.
Do I need a Section 61 consent for a Southwark project?
Southwark requests a Section 61 prior consent application for noisy works on any major development, submitted at least 28 days before works commence, with the construction management plan attached. It is technically voluntary, but without one a substantiated noise complaint is likely to result in a Section 60 notice imposing conditions on the site — so on major schemes it is effectively part of the package. We coordinate the S61 method statement alongside the CMP so the two documents stay consistent.
Other London Boroughs
- Construction Management Plans in Westminster
- Construction Management Plans in Camden
- Construction Management Plans in Kensington and Chelsea
- Construction Management Plans across London
