Hoardings and Barricades Over Council Land

When Hoardings are Required

Hoardings and barricades are a common sight around building sites. They protect the public and secure the site when unattended.

Stonnington's Local Law itself does not specify when hoarding or the taking of precautions to protect the safety of the public are required. It simply requires that when hoardings etc are to be erected over Council land a permit must be obtained. Our Street Occupation Guidelines outlines this process in more detail: Street Occupation Guidelines.doc (135.00 KB)

Where building work is to be carried out, it is the relevant building surveyor who is responsible (under the Building Regulations) to:

• decide when precautions are required through the project
• seek details of precautions from the designer/builder
• approve suitability of precautions
• give a copy of any building permit application with details of precautions projecting the street alignment to Council
• obtain consent and report under 604 of the Building Regulations to that application before issuing any building permit where precautions are proposed to project the street alignment.

After the above process and the issue of the building permit the builder will need to obtain a Local Law permit nominating the dates of hoarding. If the relevant building surveyor has met his or her duties in administering the consent and report process, the hoarding permit process is relatively straight forward.

Where no building permit is required or where work is not 'building work' (eg painting not associated with a building project), the need for hoardings may be brought about by Codes of Practice, requirements of the Victorian WorkCover Authority, directives of Council officers under the Local Government Act, etc.

In assessing hoarding permit applications in the above cases Council checks suitability against likely risks and the impact on pedestrians, traffic movement and services.

Report & Consent Process

Council has a standard form for building permit applications given to it for report and consent. Strictly speaking, the whole building permit application is to be given to a reporting authority (in this case Council) for a reporting matter. In practice, however, it is usually sufficient to provide only the documents relevant to the matter - ie a site plan showing the extent of hoardings, a summary of the building work and details of the precautionary measures over the street alignment.

It should be noted that, unless agreed to beforehand, it is the RBS that is to gather the necessary information and provide it to Council with the fee -  not the builder or designer.

Council's form can be downloaded via the forms and fees page

Find out more information about the consent and report process required by the relevant building surveyor.