Highway licences

We issue highway licences on red routes for items such as building materials, scaffolds and skips
  • Minimum four weeks notice is required - longer for more complex applications and if closures are required

Local authority consents

Local authorities issue licences for activities such as street trading, tables & chairs and pavement cafés, but only with our consent. For consideration of consents for basement openings, flag poles, pavement café seating areas, street trading and/or refuse storage bins, you should first contact the relevant local authority, who will then consult with us.

Road closures

If any consent involves a road closure (to accommodate a crane lift, for example) then we can arrange for temporary road closures as part of the process. There are statutory procedures which must be followed, with advertising costs of £2,050 to £7,000 (depending on location). Processing time is six to eight weeks for partial road closures and 10-12 weeks for full road closures.

Application forms

We can only license activities on the red routes. Find out if we're the licensing authority for your activity by checking if your location is on a red route:

As the highway authority for the red routes, we license these activities. For applications on the A13, please refer to our highway licence policies below.

Mobile Cranes

If you would like to apply for a mobile crane licence, please visit, tfl.startraqdome.com

For any queries, please contact: RPCraneLicensing@tfl.gov.uk 

TTROs and TCSRs

If you are a works promoter and a restriction is required to prohibit the movement of traffic, in order to carry out highway works, a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order (TTRO) must be obtained under section 14(1) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984. A Temporary Consolidated Suspension Request (TCSR) is required in relation to the temporary suspension of parking, loading, disabled and/or motorcycle parking bays.

The following application forms for a TTRO or TCSR are for works promoters carrying out highway works and must only be submitted along with a highway licence.

Highway licence policies

These documents outline our policies for considering highway licence applications:

Privacy notice

TfL, its subsidiaries and service providers will use your personal information for the purposes of administering your highway licence application, including where relevant, issuing an invoice and processing any payment. We will retain your information after the issue of the licence for the purposes of managing any correspondence, ensuring compliance with the licence terms and establishing and defending legal rights.

On some occasions, we may need to share your information with associated organisations or their agents for these purposes. Your personal information will be properly safeguarded and processed in accordance with the requirements of privacy and data protection legislation. To find out more about how TfL handles personal data see our privacy and cookies pages.

Street works

For a licence to do street works (eg installing and maintaining utility services) you'll need a section 50 licence