There is a balance to be struck between business aims and safety on the footway
I attended the inaugural meeting of London Street Licencing forum, chaired by Ian Hawthorne of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham. Over 20 London Authorities were represented with 60 attendees from a wide variety of roles. The meeting focused on the many and various ways in which useful “obstructuions” to the footway are licenced, inspected and managed.
The group addessed several questions, including the obvious: “Do we need such a forum?”; ”What is best practice?” and “How do we calculated and justify charges?”.
Licence types discussed on the day ranged from Skips to Scaffolding and from Table & Chairs to lost income from the use of parking bays. There was some degree of overlap into Trading Standards licencing on one side and Street Works Noticing on the other side. One of the trickier issues turned out to be “calculating charges” in order to recover the cost of administration!
Overloaded skips might be unsightly here, but they can be a real danger on busy Urban Streets
I was impressed with the presentation from Hammersmith & Fulham. It set out their approach and mixed the right amount of “process detail” with Hammersmith policy. From the Q&A slot, I am certain that many gained a great deal from it. I can’t wait to get a copy of the presentation to remind myself of the main points.
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