If you wish to place hoarding on any part of the highway (public road) in Hammersmith & Fulham you must apply for a hoarding licence.
You must apply for your hoarding licence online. Please allow five working days for your application to be processed.
To ensure compliance with licence conditions, we only accept applications from building contractors. Residents cannot apply.
The minimum period for a hoarding licence is one month. You should always apply for a licence for the full duration of time that you will occupy the highway. If you find you need it beyond this time, you will need to renew your licence at least 5 working days before the original licence expires. You will also need to renew any parking suspensions at least 5 working days before the date required.
Renewal of a licence is not automatic and depends on several factors including other planned works in the area, planned events in the borough and compliance with the original licence. Failure to meet the terms and conditions of your licence may result in it being revoked or a renewal licence application being refused. A revoked licence means you must immediately remove your hoarding from the highway.
If your work site involves a conveyor to assist with waste disposal your will be required to provide hoarding around both the conveyor and associated skip to protect the public.
If you need any advice please email the licensing and enforcement officer at highways_licensing2@lbhf.gov.uk or call us on 07776 673 090 or 07341 672 914.
How much does it cost?
The cost of a hoarding licence depends on if the hoarding is to be used for residential (home) or commercial (shop, office or premises used for business use) purposes. There is no maximum fee applicable to this licence.
Highways licensing fees and charges
| Length | Cost for first month |
|---|---|
| Commercial single frontages and residential sites measuring up to 15m | £420 |
| Any site measuring more than 15m | £960 |
You will also be required to pay a minimum deposit of £750 to cover any damage that your activities cause to the highway and fines relating to the licence that are payable to the council.
Once the licence has expired and site cleared an inspection will be carried out of the site. The deposit is refundable if the outcome of this inspection shows the highway to be in a satisfactory state and there has been a resolution to all outstanding fines.
Any deposit refunds must be claimed within six months of the end or revocation date of a valid licence. In order to start the process for a refund please contact the council on the details provided above.
Fees are paid for at the same time as the application using a credit or debit card.
Fees are non-refundable unless we decide a site is unsuitable for hoarding and no alternative location can be agreed on.
You will also be required to pay for any road closures that you may need to facilitate your works.
Parking suspensions
You must have a valid parking suspension in place before you erect your hoarding in a parking bay. It is an offence to erect your hoarding on the public highway in a parking bay which is not suspended for this purpose.
Please apply online for your parking suspension before your licence application at parking suspensions. You will need your parking bay suspension reference number for your licence application.
For lift and load operations, additional parking bay suspensions may be required and may be booked as required.
If there is no parking bay outside the address where you want to position your hoarding, please email highways_licensing2@lbhf.gov.uk for advice on a suitable location. Please address your email to the licensing and enforcement officer.
Apply online via My Account
The link above will take you to My Account where you need to log in or create an account to apply for a hoarding licence.
Your online hoarding licence application must include plan and elevation drawings. Your drawings must include dimensions to prove your proposals meet the council's safety specifications. You are expected to measure the public highway location of your proposed hoarding to ensure your drawing dimensions are accurate. Please do not submit marked-up site photographs or internet-derived street photographs. These may be out of date or not show highway features which could be later obstructed by your proposed hoarding.
As part of the application the licence applicant must complete the declaration confirming that public liability insurance is in place at the time of the application, that public liability insurance will be in place for the duration of the highway licence period and provide evidence of their public liability insurance to a minimum value of £5 million as part of the application process.
Display of your licence
You must display a laminated copy of your current licence on the hoarding where it stands on the highway at all times. Your licence must be visible to anyone using the public highway. If you do not display a valid licence you may be issued a fixed penalty notice (fine).
Your licence will be issued as an email with your company name, address where the hoarding is to be erected, licence number and validity dates. If you have not received this before you are due to occupy the highway, contact a member of the licence team on the numbers provided above.
You must not place anything on our highway until you have received your licence.
Conditions of use
The licensee is entirely responsible for the hoarding for the duration of the time it is on the highway, including delivery and collection. A hoarding licence does not include welfare units, site huts or temporary toilets. These items require separate licences. The licensee must adhere to the terms and conditions set out below.
Failure to follow these terms and conditions may lead to enforcement action including fixed penalty notices (fines) or prosecution. If any of the requirements of this licence are not complied with, measures may be taken to mark, guard, light or remove the items and to clean or repair the highway. The licensee will be liable for all the costs incurred. The council operates a zero-tolerance policy for all safety issues.
Fines for non-compliance will be issued to the licence holder and it will be their responsibility to correspond with the council and resolve those fines. Any arrangements the licence holder has with a third party are separate to this and must be resolved between the licence holder and said third party.
Inspectors regularly check the highway to ensure all activities taking place are legitimately licensed, meet all the terms and conditions licence and are promptly removed after their expiry date.
A hoarding and conveyor shall be erected and dismantled in accordance with the manufacturer's guidelines and compliance with the relevant safety legislation and standards. They shall be in compliance with the HSE [Health and Safety Executive] conditions and guidance notes, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Highways Act 1980.
When your hoarding licence expires you are required to remove your licensed highway item. A reminder email is sent to all licence holders advising that a licence is about to expire. Where a licence is required to continue, it is the licensee's responsibility to renew it before its expiry date. If a licensee fails to do this, then an application must be made for a new licence with a charge of the initial application fee for the first month, to reflect that this is a new licence.
When you apply for your highway licence, you must ensure that you provide your trading address or project office address where official correspondence can be sent and read by the licence holder. Your trading address or project office address may be different from your work site address, so please ensure that you provide the correct address for us to contact you. Failure to provide the correct contact address may cause your licence application to be refused or an existing licence revoked.
You must include a responsible manager's contact phone number for both landline and mobile numbers, plus an email address.
If there is a change in the person responsible as named licence holder, then the council's highway licence team must be advised of the replacement person's name, contact phone numbers and email address.
Expired highway licences must be removed from and replaced with new licences as appropriate. It is confusing for the public and council inspectors if several licences, current and expired, are all displayed at the same time at the same location. Parking suspensions must be renewed where applicable.
Highway licences are not transferable between existing and replacement contractors. If a new contractor takes over responsibility for a temporary item or structure on the public highway, a new licence application must be made by this replacement contractor.
Any planned excavations in the highway must be approved by this council before digging works commence. A separate licence is required to authorise any such excavation of the highway so please contact the licensing team for further information on how to obtain the appropriate licence. Undertaking an excavation without the appropriate licence may lead to a prosecution.
If the public highway is damaged either by any licensed items placed upon it or the actions of any contractors working for the licensee, the costs incurred by the council to carry out repairs are to be paid by the licensee. This would include any repair costs or officer time fees in excess of any damage deposit required as part of a licence application.
Further to any planning consultation agreement, it is the licensee's responsibility to consult local residents, businesses and other stakeholders where highway licensed items may affect them. The licence team may advise on the specific local area to be consulted.
All relevant planning consents must be agreed with the appropriate council departments before an application for a highway licence is made.
Terms and conditions
If there are any concerns with being unable to meet any of the terms and conditions stated below you need to flag these to us prior to the licence application.
1. A laminated copy of the hoarding licence (or subsequent renewal) shall be displayed prominently at the site, so it can be seen safely by the public, whilst the hoarding is on the public highway.
2. Any activity associated with the licence must not violate the terms of the agreed planning consent. Any violation may lead to the revocation of the licence.
3. All traffic and pedestrian management is to be set up in accordance with the Safety at Street Works and Road Works Code of Practice unless otherwise directed by a condition of the licence.
4. The hoarding shall not be left on the public highway unlicensed.
5. The licensee is NOT permitted to drill through the public highway to place support poles for the hoarding without prior authorisation and advance payment for the cost of repair. Please note - only council approved contractors are authorised to make repairs to the public highway.
6, If the erection of the hoarding structure is incomplete, a sign must be attached to the hoarding structure confirming this status and this sign must be clearly visible to the public.
7. Concrete block supports for hoardings must be agreed with the council prior to a licence being issued. The weight of these blocks must not damage the surface of any public highway. Wooden panels must be laid under these blocks to distribute their weight.
8. The licensee shall ensure all personnel working on site operations associated with the hoarding and conveyor are competent and efficient and take all the relevant and necessary safety precautions.
9. Where spoil is being removed from a property, via a conveyor overhanging the footway, into a skip on the road, the licensee shall ensure the entire conveyor and skip is completely enclosed to fully contain the spoil and prevent it falling onto pedestrians, vehicles or the footway. A minimum 2.6 metre headroom should be provided under any hoarding overhanging the footway.
10. No chutes to be set up over the public highway.
11. The hoarding shall have affixed below and right across the top edge of each end, a reflective strip having reflective or fluorescent stripes which shall be kept clear at all times.
12. A hoarding must have marker lights attached to warn motorists and pedestrians during the hours of darkness. Red marker lights must be fixed to any hoarding corners adjacent to moving traffic, and repeated at 3 metre intervals along the length of the hoarding if it extends to that length. White lights must be used to illuminate any public footways, especially under any overhanging conveyor hoardings.
13. A council inspector can request to see any hoarding lights working.
14. Any baulk timbers used to protect a hoarding structure on a public carriageway must display red marker lights at 2.5 to 3 metre intervals along their length, plus at any corners or ends of these bulk timbers.
15, The erection and removal of the hoarding shall take place between the licence start and end dates. The erection of the hoarding shall take place within three days after the licence start date.
16. The licensee shall ensure the public footway is not closed off to pedestrians without prior authorisation for a footway closure from the council.
17. Where a footway closure is required to facilitate the works or it is necessary to close it temporarily for erecting the hoarding and conveyor, a pedestrian and traffic management plan shall be agreed in writing, in advance, with the council to safely divert pedestrians and / or traffic.
18. The licensee is responsible for providing a pedestrian and traffic management plan to include the signing and guarding of the site, in accordance with the Safety at Street Works and Road Works Code of Practice.
19. The licensee is responsible for the suspension of any parking bays and for providing all banksmen, signage, barriers, ramps etc. as agreed in the traffic management plan. These items shall be checked and secured in the correct position each morning prior to commencing work.
20. Permission for hoarding does not extend to the parking of vehicles or loading or unloading of materials. The licensee shall ensure all parking, loading and waiting restrictions are adhered to.
21. Boards, drills or associated fittings are not to be stored on the highway during erecting and dismantling the hoarding. No tools, wires or other items are to be left lying on the public highway at any time.
22. Where planning permission, building control approval or any other consent is required for the proposed works, the relevant authorisation shall be in place prior to requesting a licence and placing a hoarding and conveyor on site.
23. The hoarding licence does not include welfare units, site huts or temporary toilets. These items require separate licence approvals.
24. The hoarding must not obstruct access to any inspection covers in the public highway, or any lamp columns or traffic signs.
25. The hoarding should be painted in a uniform colour. Unpainted wooden panels are not permitted. Advertising graphics are not permitted under these licence terms and conditions, but may be allowed under a separate advertising planning consent.
26. The licensee shall undertake the erection of the hoarding in off peak hours i.e. early morning, at night or at weekends, subject to the approval of environmental protection officers. This is very important where the location is within a town centre, or a busy pedestrian area. In quiet streets, the times may be negotiated. In ALL cases, the times of erecting the hoarding and conveyor shall be agreed in advance with the licence team.
27. The licensee shall ensure the public footway is NOT closed off to pedestrians without prior authorisation for a footway closure from the council. The public footway must then be kept clear for pedestrians to pass in safety. A minimum 1.2 metre clearance is required and 1.5 metres in areas of high footfall.
28. No doors are permitted to open outwards onto the public highway.
29. The hoarding company name and contact details shall be clearly displayed on the structure at all times. The site manager's contact details should be displayed, as required by CDM Building Regulations, where it can be clearly seen.
30. A hoarding should not be constructed to be a container for loose building materials or waste materials. This should be managed by applying for a skip or building materials licence as appropriate in addition to a hoarding licence if it is to be enclosed.
31. Where scaffold poles are used on the public highway as part of a hoarding structure, these poles must be covered with yellow foam sleeving and completely covered in red and white, or black and yellow, high visibility tape.
32. A council inspector has the right at any time to inspect inside a hoarding structure.
33. The cost of repairing any damage including cleaning or removing any stains on the highway caused by the licence activities will be recovered from the licensee.
34. The licensee must comply with any reasonable direction or instruction given by the council.
35. The hoarding shall be placed a minimum of 100mm from the kerb so that it does not impede any surface water drainage.
36. Graffiti to be removed from hoarding.
37. Spoil, concrete staining and concrete into gully are not permitted on the carriageway.
38. The site and surrounding area shall be kept in a clean and tidy condition at all times.
39. The signatory of the application is the person accepting responsibility for the compliance of all conditions and regulations associated with placing hoarding on the highway.