Construction Management Plans in Southwark

Southwark requires a Demolition/Construction Management Plan with every major planning application, and Southwark Plan policies on highways, noise and air quality all reach into the construction phase. The council publishes no template. Plans are assessed against its Technical Guidance for Demolition and Construction, which sets explicit noise, vibration and dust monitoring requirements for major schemes, alongside Section 61 consents and a set of highways licences that each carry their own lead time.

What Southwark Requires

Southwark’s full planning application checklist requires a Demolition/Construction Management Plan (D/CEMP) with all major planning applications (10 or more homes, or over 1,000 sq m of floorspace), explaining how harm from construction to the environment and neighbours will be managed and reduced. The requirement rests on Southwark Plan 2022 Policy P50, which expects development to show how any construction phase that uses the public highway can be carried out safely, with vehicle movements minimised and strictly controlled to reduce danger to vulnerable road users. Policy P66 adds that major development must show how construction noise will be reduced, mitigated and managed, and the air quality assessment required with every major application must cover construction phase impacts.

Southwark publishes no pro-forma. Plans are written from scratch and assessed against the council’s Technical Guidance for Demolition and Construction, prepared by its Environmental Protection Team. The guidance is dated September 2016 but is still the document the council’s current checklists link to, so parts of it have dated: its NRMM emission stages were only set until 2020, and the council’s noise and dust limit pages now publish their own figures. Where a decision notice includes a construction management condition, the details must be approved through a discharge-of-conditions application before the works it covers begin; starting without them risks enforcement action and the permission itself.

Working Hours, Noise and Vibration Limits

Noisy work, including deliveries and collections, maintenance and cleaning, is permitted 8am–6pm Monday to Friday and 9am–2pm on Saturdays, with no works on Sundays or bank holidays. Excessively noisy works go on a two-hours-on, two-hours-off basis, for example 8–10am, 12 noon–2pm and 4–6pm on weekdays and 11am–1pm only on Saturdays. Noisy work outside permitted hours needs a short-term “out of hours” Section 61 permission, applied for at least 7 days ahead. It is only available for work lasting less than eight weeks, the applicant must give a valid safety or highways reason, late applications are refused, and surrounding residents and businesses must be leafleted before the work starts.

The council’s noise limits page, updated in September 2026, sets a limit of 75 dB(A) Leq over the 10-hour weekday and 5-hour Saturday working periods, measured at the façade of the closest noise-sensitive receptor. The Technical Guidance frames this as trigger and action levels: 70 and 75 dB(A) over the 10-hour day, and 75 and 80 dB(A) over any 15 minutes. Vibration is limited to 1 mm/s PPV at homes, schools and colleges, 3 mm/s at occupied commercial premises and 5 mm/s at other unoccupied buildings, and the guidance expects non-percussive piling, with conventional impact hammers avoided.

Section 61 Consents and Monitoring

Southwark says you must get consent for noisy demolition or construction under Section 61 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 at least 28 days before works start, and that if you do not apply, the council will set your hours, terms and conditions. The Technical Guidance adds that after a substantiated complaint about a site without consent, the council will likely serve a Section 60 notice. The application goes to the Environmental Protection Team with a method statement covering the phases of work, plant and predicted noise levels, a cumulative noise programme, predicted Leq and Lmax levels at the nearest sensitive receptors, mitigation and confirmation of NRMM compliance; the council’s guidance note invites applicants to attach the D/CEMP rather than repeat it. Consents are usually reviewed or reissued at the main stages (demolition, ground works and sub-structure; super-structure; fit-out), and a new Principal Contractor must make a fresh application.

On major developments, the guidance requires:

• Continuous noise monitoring at agreed boundary locations; on minor sites, twice-daily spot readings 1m from the nearest noise-sensitive façade may suffice
• Continuous vibration monitoring during demolition, piling, excavation and other ground or sub-structure works
• Continuous PM10 dust monitoring, with every major development treated as high risk for dust; the council’s dust page limits PM10 to 190 µg/m³ averaged over one hour, while the guidance uses 200 µg/m³ (trigger) and 250 µg/m³ (action) over 15 minutes
• An Air Quality and Dust Management Plan submitted before works start, with site machinery confirmed on the London NRMM register

Neighbours, Hoarding and the Site Boundary

The guidance expects a designated Environmental Manager to handle resident liaison, compliance and monitoring, and to be the first point of contact for the council. Before any work starts, surrounding residents must receive written notification giving the Environmental Manager’s contact details, a summary of the works, the start date and how updates will be distributed. After that comes a monthly newsletter and, on major schemes, regular meetings with residents and businesses covering progress, disruptive works and any out-of-hours or weekend working. The public must be able to reach responsive contractor staff whenever the site is operating, with a site complaints record showing corrective action and regulatory visits. The physical standards are specific:

• Hoarding at least 3m high, plywood-faced and timber-framed, with a density of at least 7.5 kg/m², displaying the programme, complaint and enquiry numbers, the site manager’s name and an out-of-hours emergency contact
• Site gates with a clear opening of at least 4.5m, swinging into the site
• Footways around the site at least 2m wide, with 2.3m headroom and ramps no steeper than 1 in 12
• Environment Agency consent for hoardings or scaffolding within 16m of flood defences

Basements, Heritage and Flood Risk

Southwark has no stand-alone basement policy. Policy P14 of the Southwark Plan requires basements that do not have adverse archaeological, amenity or environmental impacts, and both the full and householder validation checklists require a Basement Impact Assessment for any new or extended basement, prepared by a self-certified, suitably qualified engineer or geologist who is a member of a relevant professional body (citing Policies P14 and P68). The council’s Basements and Flooding guide expects the assessment to identify suitable construction methods and mitigation, set out a method for monitoring ground conditions, water movement, subsidence and drainage, and consider the cumulative impact of other basements nearby, and the CMP has to carry those commitments through.

Flood risk is the other constraint. No basements are permitted in Flood Zone 3b, basements in Flood Zone 3a are restricted to non-residential uses, residential basements in Flood Zone 2 need an Exception Test, and every basement extension needs a flood risk assessment. Basement schemes also trigger an archaeological desk-based assessment under Policy P23. Southwark has 48 conservation areas and around 2,500 listed buildings; an application in or close to either needs a heritage statement, and the Technical Guidance requires a schedule of tree works to go to the planning department before any tree work, to check for Tree Preservation Orders and conservation area protection.

Construction Traffic and Air Quality

HGVs must follow a fixed route agreed with Southwark’s Network Management Team and the police, avoiding streets serving residential areas or schools unless unavoidable, entering and leaving in forward gear where the site allows, and never parking near the site. Vehicles waiting to enter or leave must switch off their engines (concrete mixers are the only exception), and arrivals and departures must stay within permitted hours. Works on or affecting the TfL Road Network (red routes) or the Strategic Road Network need a Traffic Management Act notification to TfL, and works on the TfL Road Network need a permit. Policy P51 requires construction diversions of walking routes to be convenient and clearly signposted, and Policy P25 asks riverside schemes to consider using the Thames to move materials during construction.

The council’s checklist notes that Southwark’s Air Quality Management Area covers most of the borough. All light goods and heavy duty vehicles servicing a site must meet Euro 6, all construction vehicles must meet London Low Emission Zone standards, and the guidance expects wheel washing, covered loads, a 5mph site speed limit and wet cleaning of roads within 100m of the site entrance at least once a day.

Highways Licences, Fees and Timescales

Southwark charges no separate CMP review fee. The cost is the national discharge-of-conditions fee (from 1 April 2026, £309 for most development and £89 for householder schemes), and the council must decide the application within the statutory eight weeks unless a longer period is agreed in writing. Section 61 consent needs 28 days, so it can run in parallel. Highways licences, applied for through the council’s licensing portal by the holder of the public liability insurance, carry their own lead times and fees:

• Scaffolding and hoarding: at least 15 working days’ notice; £561.75 a month up to 10m in length, £750 up to 50m and £1,017 over 50m, plus a deposit of £100 per metre that may be applied
• Mobile cranes, MEWPs and concrete pumps on the highway: at least 15 working days’ notice; £368 for the first day and £175 for each additional day
• Tower crane oversail: planning permission must be in place, and Southwark recommends applying at least 3 months before installation; £250 a year plus legal fees of around £3,500
• Temporary traffic orders for road closures: 12 weeks’ notice; £2,852 for a planned order
• Parking bay suspensions: seven days’ notice; a £93 admin fee plus £53.15 a day per car space

How CMP Construct Helps in Southwark

CMP Construct prepares council-compliant Construction Management Plans across Southwark and more than 20 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), a Construction Logistics Plan (CLP) or a Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP), 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, vibration and dust limits
• Southwark roads and highways licensing

Frequently Asked Questions

Other London Boroughs

Comparing boroughs? See construction working hours across London, basement rules in each borough and which councils expect their own CMP template, or go straight to another borough’s guide:

• Westminster
• Camden
• Kensington and Chelsea
• Islington
• City of London
• Lambeth
• Tower Hamlets
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Wandsworth
• Haringey
• All London boroughs