There are usually nine or ten sites building in this ward at any time, and complaints about them are the second largest thing at the desk after parking.
What the ward holds: the footpath and the public space. A hoarding standing on the footpath needs the ward's agreement and a diversion that people with a pram or a stick can actually use, and the ward inspects those weekly. Materials stored on the footpath are not permitted at all. Neither is a mixer on the carriageway outside the marked area.
What the ward does not hold: building permission, the design, the hours a site may work, structural safety, and anything about the building itself. Those belong to the city's building office and the desk will give you its address, hours and reference format.
How to report a site: the street, the nearest building, the date and what is blocked. Photographs help and can be brought on a telephone. The ward inspector visits within two working days and writes to the contractor the same day.
What happens then. A first letter is usually enough. A site that has been written to twice is reported to the city with the ward's file, and the ward objects to the hoarding agreement at renewal, which is the sharpest thing it can do and has been done four times.
The ward will also say when a complaint is about noise within permitted hours or about dust that cannot be avoided, because a building site is not a nuisance merely by existing.