Crane oversail and temporary highway licence charges
Oversailing a neighbour's airspace is a private law matter, not a planning one. Hoardings, scaffolds and skips on the highway need licences from the highway authority, charged by length and duration.
A crane oversail licence costs whatever the adjoining owner will accept, because it is a private agreement rather than a published charge. That is the first thing to understand about temporary construction licences: some are priced by a public authority against a schedule you can look up, and some are priced by a neighbour who knows your programme depends on them. Budget for both differently.
The planning system barely touches any of this. A condition may control crane locations, lighting and hours on amenity grounds, and a construction management plan may describe the sequence, but the right to swing a jib over someone else's land comes from that owner alone.
Oversailing airspace is a civil matter
An owner's rights extend into the airspace above their land to the height needed for ordinary use and enjoyment. A jib crossing that airspace is a trespass, and the usual remedy is an injunction rather than damages, which is why oversail negotiations tend to settle. An injunction obtained the week before a steel frame goes up is worth far more to a neighbour than a licence fee.
Terms in a typical oversail licence:
- a fee, sometimes a single sum and sometimes weekly, reflecting the value of the disruption rather than any cost to the neighbour
- a defined oversail zone, height and time window, with agreed working hours
- no suspension of loads over the neighbour's property, and free-slewing when out of service
- a method statement, lift plan and crane specification supplied in advance
- insurance and an indemnity in favour of the adjoining owner
- a schedule of condition survey before and after, with reinstatement of any damage
Start the negotiation early and treat it as a programme risk rather than a legal formality. Where the neighbour is a commercial landlord with tenants, expect the licence to be routed through their managing agent and their solicitor, and expect their costs to be added to yours.
Hoardings, scaffolds and skips
These come from the highway authority under the Highways Act 1980, and they are charged. A hoarding licence is needed where a hoarding or fence is erected on or adjoining the highway during works. A scaffold licence covers scaffolding erected on the highway. A skip permit is needed for any skip placed on a road. Deposits of building materials on the highway need consent too.
The authority will normally require:
- public liability insurance to a stated minimum, evidenced before the licence is issued
- a site-specific plan showing the extent of occupation and pedestrian routes
- a lit and signed pedestrian diversion where the footway is taken, designed so that it remains usable by wheelchair and pushchair users
- reinstatement of the surface to the authority's specification when the licence ends
Charges are set locally. Most authorities publish a schedule with a fee per linear metre per week, banded by the length of highway occupied, plus an administration charge and sometimes a returnable deposit. Rates are revised each year, so take the figure from the authority's current schedule at tender rather than from the last project.
Road closures and traffic management
A closure, a suspension of parking bays or a one-way working arrangement needs an order under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. The process involves advertising, notice periods and consultation with the emergency services and bus operators, and the authority recovers its costs from the applicant.
Two points drive the programme. Notice periods are statutory, so a closure cannot be brought forward by paying more. And parking bay suspensions in controlled parking zones are charged per bay per day, which accumulates quickly on an urban infill site with a long substructure phase.
Where the works involve apparatus in the street, such as a new service connection, the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 regime applies instead, run by the authority's street works team on a noticing system with its own charges for occupying the highway. And utility connections carry their own charges and lead times, which are easy to leave out of an early appraisal.
Illustrative worked budget
Illustrative example: a four-storey infill block on a town centre street, with a tower crane oversailing the rear of a retail unit for fourteen weeks and a hoarding taking two metres of footway for the full build. The licence lines in the preliminaries would be an oversail licence fee plus the neighbour's legal costs, a hoarding licence charged per metre per week for the whole period, a footway closure with a signed diversion, a skip permit renewed through the fit-out, two suspended parking bays for deliveries, and an increase in public liability cover to meet the authority's requirement. The figures themselves depend entirely on the authority's published schedule and the neighbour's appetite, so treat the structure of this list as the transferable part.
Insurance, indemnity and liability
Every licence in this family carries an insurance condition, and the numbers are not trivial. Highway authorities specify a minimum level of public liability cover for works on or over the highway, and adjoining owners granting an oversail licence usually ask for the same or more, with themselves named as indemnified parties.
Check three things before signing. That the policy actually covers the activity, because crane operations are sometimes excluded or subject to a separate endorsement. That the indemnity you give is limited to the licensed activity rather than open-ended. And that the certificate you supply remains valid for the whole licence period, because a licence lapses with the cover.
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 sit underneath all of it. Lift plans, exclusion zones and the appointment of an appointed person for lifting operations are health and safety duties, not licence conditions, and a licence does not discharge them.
Building the licences into the budget
Licences and permits belong in the construction preliminaries, not in the planning budget, and they are usually the contractor's cost under a standard building contract. That is precisely why they get missed at appraisal stage: the developer sees a preliminaries percentage and the contractor prices the licences inside it.
On constrained urban sites, ask for them to be priced as separate lines. Three questions to put to the contractor at tender:
- What extent of highway occupation is assumed, for how many weeks, and against which authority's schedule?
- Does the programme assume any oversail, and has a licence been secured or only assumed?
- What notice periods have been allowed for traffic orders and bay suspensions?
Planning conditions interact with the answers. A Construction Traffic Management Plan submitted to discharge a condition should describe the same routes and occupations the licence applications will rely on, and a Construction Management Plan covering hours, deliveries and hoarding lines should not contradict what the highway authority has been asked to licence. Officers do compare the two.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with the highway authority or a qualified professional before relying on it, since charges and requirements are set locally. See PlanScope pricing if you want the planning documents drafted in-house rather than commissioned, and send the drafts for professional review before they go in.
PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need planning permission to oversail a neighbour's land with a crane?
No. Swinging a jib over adjoining land is trespass into that owner's airspace, which is a private law matter settled by agreement rather than by the planning system. A planning condition may control crane positions for amenity or highway reasons, but the right to oversail comes from the neighbour, not the council.
What happens if we oversail without a licence?
The adjoining owner can seek an injunction, which can stop the lift at a day's notice and is far more expensive than the licence would have been. Damages are also available. Contractors who assume a free-slewing jib avoids the problem are usually wrong, because the trespass occurs whether or not a load is suspended.
Who issues hoarding and scaffold licences?
The local highway authority, which is the county council, unitary authority or London borough rather than the planning department. Charges are set locally and published in a fees schedule, usually calculated by the length of highway occupied and the number of weeks, with a deposit or reinstatement bond for larger occupations.
Is a road closure the same as a licence?
No. Closing or restricting a road needs a traffic regulation order made under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, which carries statutory notice periods and advertising costs. Short closures can sometimes be dealt with under a temporary notice, but both routes need lead time measured in weeks rather than days.
Can these charges be recovered through the planning application?
No. Licence charges are payable to the highway authority and the neighbouring owner, separately from any planning fee or infrastructure levy. Build them into the preliminaries in the construction budget and check the authority's published schedule at the time of tender, because the rates are revised annually.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.