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CMP Construct

Which Construction Plan Do I Need?

Many building projects need one or more of four documents approved before work can start: a Construction Management Plan (CMP), a Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP), a Construction Logistics Plan (CLP) or a Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP). Answer a few questions about your project and this checker shows which it likely needs and why, using the requirements set out in our London borough guides.

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    Check Your Project

    Up to eight short questions, one at a time. Nothing is sent until you ask for a quote.

    Question 1 of 8

    Where is the site?

    Choose the council the planning application is with.

    The Four Construction Plans at a Glance

    The documents overlap, and councils are not always consistent in what they call them. Your planning condition’s exact wording decides which you need.

    • Construction Management Plan (CMP): The broadest document: how the whole site will be run, covering working hours, methodology, noise, dust, waste, deliveries, neighbour liaison and safety. Most London councils secure one through the application, a pre-commencement condition or a Section 106 agreement.
    • Construction Traffic Management Plan (CTMP): The highways plan: vehicle routes, numbers and sizes by phase, site access, loading, marshals, pedestrian safety, parking suspensions and swept path analysis where turns are tight. Some boroughs want it as a section of the CMP, others as a standalone document.
    • Construction Logistics Plan (CLP): Follows Transport for London’s guidance and goes further on freight: fewer trips, delivery booking, and vehicle and driver standards. Usually an outline plan with the application and a detailed plan before work starts, on larger schemes and sites affecting TfL roads.
    • Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP): The environmental counterpart: noise and vibration, dust and air quality, water and drainage, waste, contamination and ecology, with the monitoring to evidence them. Conditioned near homes, schools, watercourses or protected habitats; otherwise the same controls sit in the CMP.

    Some councils use names of their own. Kensington and Chelsea approves a Site Construction Management Plan (SCMP), Westminster asks its largest projects for a Site Environmental Management Plan (SEMP), Southwark requires a Demolition/Construction Environmental Management Plan (D/CEMP) with major applications, and the City of London agrees a Scheme of Protective Works.

    Supporting Items Councils Ask For

    Alongside the plans themselves, councils often want supporting drawings, surveys and consents. The checker flags these too:

    • Swept path analysis: a drawing tracing the path of a lorry’s body and wheels through each turn, proving it can enter, manoeuvre and leave safely. Highways officers ask for it where access is from a narrow street or a busy junction, and Westminster requires it in every CMP and SEMP.
    • Noise and vibration surveys and monitoring: baseline readings before work starts and monitoring during it, against limits the council sets. Expected on larger sites, and around basement excavation, demolition and piling close to homes, schools and hospitals.
    • Section 61 prior consent: an agreement under the Control of Pollution Act 1974 on methods, hours and noise limits for noisy work. The council has 28 days to decide, so apply at least four weeks ahead. Some boroughs require one on larger sites; the City of London does not advise them. Our working hours guide covers each borough.
    • Highway licences, suspensions and closures: skips, scaffolding, hoarding, cranes, parking bay suspensions and road closures each need their own licence or order, with notice periods from a few days to 12 weeks, and several boroughs grant none until the plan is approved. On TfL red routes, licences come from TfL. See the lead times for each borough.
    • A Basement Impact Assessment or an engineer’s method statement: most London boroughs want one or the other with a basement application, and the CMP has to carry through the monitoring it commits to. Our basement CMP guide sets out each borough’s rules.

    How the Checker Decides

    Every answer maps to requirements already set out in our guides. The checker never says a document is definitely required: it shows what is likely, explains why, and flags anything that needs a closer look.

    • Your condition comes first. If you paste its wording, the checker looks for the documents it names and treats those as likely needed. Conditions sometimes name one document but describe another, so we read the full wording before quoting.
    • The borough sets the triggers and the format. For the boroughs we publish guides for, the checker applies that council’s own rules: Westminster’s project levels, Kensington and Chelsea’s site categories, Southwark’s D/CEMP for major applications, the City of London’s Scheme of Protective Works and Islington’s CLP alongside the CMP. Elsewhere it uses the patterns common to most London boroughs.
    • The type and scale of the work. Basements, demolition and major schemes (10 or more homes, or 1,000 sq m or more) are the projects most often asked for a plan, and the major threshold changes what most boroughs expect.
    • The street outside. Closures, parking suspensions, cranes and large deliveries point to a traffic plan, and a red route brings in TfL.
    • The neighbours. Schools, hospitals and attached homes point to environmental controls and monitoring; conservation areas and listed buildings add heritage protection.
    • Timing. Approval takes longer than drafting: allow two to three months from commissioning a plan to a discharged condition, longer where a borough runs a formal clock, such as the 40 working days Westminster and Tower Hamlets need before work starts.

    The borough rules come from these guides, each checked against the council’s own documents:

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Related Plans and Guides