Building Materials Licence

If you'd like to store building materials on a public highway, public road or street then you'll need to apply for a licence. This is what a building materials licence is.

Whenever possible, you should put all building materials on private land. If you do this, you generally will not need a building materials licence.

However, if you can’t do this for whatever reason then a building materials licence is required.

A building materials licence is valid for four weeks. To extend, you'll need to re-apply at least two weeks before your current licence's expiry date.

To apply for a building materials licence, all applications must be made via your local council.

Information on how to do this and what local authority to contact can be found find your local council and their application online.

Applications to place building materials on the highway should be made at least 15 working days in advance of the start date required to allows time for processing of licence and application and site visit if required.

Materials placed on the highway are potentially hazardous obstructions, so the licence includes conditions such as signing, lighting and traffic management.

The local authority will inspect your site on a regular basis. Your licensed activity must meet the local authorities’ terms and conditions.

These conditions normally include:

a single licence allows for the storage of materials, not exceeding three metres in length, 1.5 metres in width and one metre in height. You will need to consult your local authority if larger quantities are involved 

materials placed in, or partly on, the road require at least four traffic cones on the approach side to guide traffic past the storage area

during the hours of darkness, in poor daytime visibility and bad weather, road danger lamps - flashing amber - must be placed to indicate the area of the site. If sited in the road, a lamp should be placed between each cone

building materials placed on the highway must not obstruct or interfere with the drainage of the street or with any apparatus of the public utility companies.

Please note - Each local authority will have their own individual policies and procedures when applying for a Building materials licence.