The scaffold is still up. The licence is not.
A shop front scaffold on a high street, with a licence from the council for a set period. The builder's job has run on, as they do. Nobody noticed the licence end date was last week, until a council officer emails asking for the renewal, or a customer asks why they have been sent a notice.
Meanwhile, three new applications are waiting to go in to three different councils, each with its own form and each wanting slightly different drawings and insurance details.
Why licences slip
Licence rules and processes are set by each council, and a scaffolding firm working across several boroughs deals with several processes at once. The dates that matter depend on how long the scaffold stays up, which depends on the customer, not you.
- Applications are made by different people in different formats.
- Approval, conditions and expiry dates are kept in email.
- Nobody links the licence to the scaffold's hire status.
- Renewals are remembered, or not.
- Licence fees are paid but not always recharged.
What missed licences cost
Dealing with the council after an expiry takes time and puts your standing with them at risk. Unrecharged fees come out of your margin. Customers are unhappy when a licence issue holds up their job. And applications that go in late delay erects, which ripples through the gang and transport plans.
It also affects planning. An erect that cannot go ahead because the licence application went in late means the gang and wagon need to be moved to another job at short notice, and the customer is let down through no fault of their own.
We track dates and documents. What each council requires, and what your obligations are, is for you and the council to settle.
The licence register we build
- Jobs that need a licence are flagged at quote stage, based on the site details your estimator records.
- Each council you work with has its own record: application route, forms, documents it asks for and typical conditions, maintained by your office.
- Applications are prepared from the job's details, with the drawings, insurance documents and other attachments the council asks for pulled from your records.
- Submission, approval, conditions, fees and expiry dates are recorded against the scaffold.
- Alerts go to the office ahead of expiry if the scaffold is still standing on the hire register, so a renewal can be made or the customer asked about strike.
- Conditions are shown on the gang's job sheet, so they know what the licence says.
- Licence fees are added to the customer's invoice where your terms allow, and a report shows licences by status and council.
| Stage | Recorded |
|---|---|
| Needed | Flagged at quote |
| Applied | Date, council, documents sent |
| Approved | Conditions, fee, start and end dates |
| Due for renewal | Alert if scaffold still standing |
| Closed | Scaffold struck, licence ended |
Each council's process is its own. We organise your side of it so dates and documents are not lost.
After the register is in place
Every licence is linked to a scaffold, and renewals are prompted while there is time. Applications are prepared faster from details you already hold. Fees reach invoices. And the gang knows the conditions they are working under.
Is this your licence admin?
- Licence dates are in a spreadsheet or email.
- A licence has expired while the scaffold stood.
- Each council's application is started from scratch.
- Licence fees are not always recharged.