how does saturday construction + demolition affect you?
The City is about to review its Code of Practice covering when building sites can operate – currently from 8am – 6pm (with quieter periods mid-morning and mid-afternoon) and 9am – 2pm on Saturdays.
The Barbican and Golden Lane Neighbourhood Forum (BGLNF), along with GLERA and the Barbican Association, want your views to put to the City to support improvements to the Code.
Since the last revision of the code more people work from home during the week, meaning greater overall exposure to construction noise at home. Saturday mornings have become increasingly important for rest, recovery, family time, and respite from weekday disturbance. Two of the other major boroughs in Central London’s major business zone do not allow noisy works on Saturday mornings.
This survey focuses specifically on your direct experience of the impacts of demolition/deconstruction and construction in and around the Neighbourhood Forum area. The survey should take under 5 minutes to complete, and responses are confidential.
why we want your views
In 2017, the City included workers and businesses in its consultation, and did not consider residential areas separately even though 116 out of 149 (78%) of residents supported a ban on Saturday working. Since then, there have been significant and sustained construction activity, noise, and other impacts from successive large developments being constructed within or adjoining the Barbican and Golden Lane Neighbourhood.
The City’s current Saturday hours (9am – 2pm) are longer than that of two of the other major boroughs in Central London’s major business zone, where weekend respite is now the norm.
Comparable inner-London boroughs restrict Saturday construction working more tightly than the City of London:
Currently only the Barbican Estate has a permanent ban on building work within the residential estate on Saturday mornings, but that is a purely local arrangement. The developer of Tenter House, currently under construction near Moorgate tube, has voluntarily agreed not to work on site at all on Saturdays, which suggests that this is possible on other commercial building sites.
