A hoarding needs the ward's agreement and a diversion somebody with a pram can use. Four of the nine sites now building in this ward did not have one.
The ward inspected the nine construction sites currently working in these forty one streets over the last fortnight. Four have been written to and this notice explains what for, because it is the same four faults every year.
What the ward holds here. The footpath and the public space, and nothing else. A hoarding standing on a footpath needs the ward's agreement, and that agreement requires a diversion that a person with a pram, a stick or a wheelchair can actually use. Not a painted arrow pointing into the carriageway. Materials stored on a footpath are not permitted at all, at any hour. A mixer on the carriageway outside the marked area is not permitted.
The four faults found. Two sites had narrowed a footpath to under a metre with no diversion. One had a diversion into the carriageway on a corner with no sightline, which is the most dangerous thing the inspector saw. One had sand and blockwork on the footpath for the third time in a season.
What happens next. Each has had a letter this week. A first letter settles it about eight times in ten. A site written to twice is reported to the city's building office with the whole ward file, and the ward objects to the hoarding agreement when it comes up for renewal, which is the sharpest instrument this office has and has been used four times in three years.
What the ward does not hold, and residents ask us weekly. Building permission, the design, the hours a site may work, structural safety, and anything about the building itself. All of that belongs to the city's building office, and the desk will give you its address, its hours and its reference format rather than taking a complaint it cannot act on.
How to report a site. The street, the nearest building, the date and what is blocked. Photographs on a telephone are useful and the desk will note them. The inspector visits within two working days.
One fair thing to say. A building site is not a nuisance merely by existing, there are nine of them in this ward because people are building homes, and the ward will say so when a complaint is about ordinary noise within permitted hours or dust that cannot be avoided.
