Out of Hours (OOH) working approval

Out of Hours (OOH) working approval is required for any work taking place outside of the standard working hours in Westminster.

Standard hours are:

• Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm
• Saturday, 8am to 1pm

Sunday and bank holidays are considered outside standard working hours.

OOH working approval applies to:

• work taking place for three days or less
• construction sites not registered under the Code of Construction Practice (CoCP)
• utility work by statutory undertakers
• works taking place on highways and Transport for London routes (TLRN)
• other works like the use of cranes or cherry pickers, scaffolding works, façade cleaning, and so on

Please note that if you want to undertake street works or construction activities out of hours for more than three consecutive evenings or nights, you need to apply for Section 61 prior consent.

Emergency works

OOH approval is not required for emergency work.

An application is not needed for immediate (urgent and emergency work), but please inform [email protected] as soon as possible, and at the latest by 10am the day after, if works have already commenced.

You must provide justification and include noise mitigation measures. Officers can then advise on any further mitigation measures needed for ongoing or future works.

You should also notify the affected residents as soon as possible.

How to apply

Fill in our OOH working approval form

You can use the GIS map that is part of the application form to identify properties that need to be notified about the work. The list of identified properties should be attached to the application for validation.

To have your application processed within standard processing timescales make sure that your application is completed accurately

• you include any required supporting documentation, for example, liaison material and a list of identified premises to be letter dropped

Check our good practice guide for OOH works for help.

Document

Good practice guide for environmental noise control for out of hours working PDF, 169.21 KB, 7 pages

Approved OOH works that fail to implement agreed environmental control measures will be stopped. The council can take enforcement actions against businesses and contractors that conduct noisy works outside standard working hours without prior approval.

Standard processing times

Standard processing times vary according to the type of OOH works.

• For planned minor and standard street or utility works, we aim to respond within three working days.
• For all other works, we aim to respond within 10 working days.

Please note that 'application processing working days' exclude weekends (Saturday and Sunday) and bank holidays.

If noisy OOH work needs to take place over more than three consecutive evenings or nights including weekends, you need to apply for Section 61 prior consent.

Tracking your online application

If you have not received a response from us within the prescribed timescales, we sincerely apologise for the delay.

To track your application status, please get in touch with our Environmental Action Line on 0207 641 2000 and provide your application reference number.