Scaffolding in Maldon and the Dengie

Maldon's name means the monument on the hill. The High Street runs along the top and, east of St Peter's church, drops down to the Hythe, where the Thames sailing barges lie. The conservation area, designated in 1969 and extended in 1998, takes in the medieval centre, the Hythe and much of the nineteenth-century housing between them, with about 185 listed buildings. The west end is a knot of narrow lanes, Gate Street, Silver Street and Coach Lane; the level stretch beside them has taller Georgian brick fronts; at the Hythe there is a pavement on one side of the road and parked cars on the other.

For a scaffolder that is a licence job almost every time. Fronts sit on the pavement, the lanes give a lorry nowhere to stand, and the slope means the rear of a High Street building can be a lift taller than the front, so we survey from the yard side as well. Re-roofs, repointing and render repairs are the usual work. A scaffold in a conservation area does not need consent in itself, but the work behind it usually does, and Article 4 directions on Tenterfield Road, Victoria Road and North Street take permitted development off the Victorian houses there. See painting and rendering scaffolding and roofing scaffolding.

East of Maldon the peninsula is flat marsh between the Crouch, the Blackwater and the North Sea, held by sea walls. In the 1953 surge the wall was breached at Bradwell on the Blackwater. The same night, water stood in the low streets of Burnham-on-Crouch, from the Quay to the High Street. The wind arrives with nothing in front of it, so the tie pattern and any netting are decided at the survey, not on the day, and we would rather leave a run unsheeted than under-tie it. Salt air works on tube and fittings, so we inspect on a cycle and re-tag.

Burnham-on-Crouch, a yachting town on the north bank of the Crouch, has a conservation area of its own, as do Southminster, Bradwell-on-Sea and Tillingham; Maldon District has fifteen. Beyond Southminster the lanes are farmhouses, barns and village ends where a lorry has one place to stand.

Maldon lost its railway in 1964, and tube and boards do not travel on the single-track line to Burnham and Southminster anyway. Bradwell is about six miles beyond Southminster on the B1021; Maldon itself is ten miles east of Chelmsford. A crew a fitting short cannot nip back, so we load the night before, over-carry fittings and ties, and make the erect and the strike one visit each. On a barn conversion out towards Bradwell the farm track decides where the lorry stops and the loading bay goes; we walk it at the survey.

Maldon District Council is the planning authority for CM9 and CM0. The roads belong to Essex County Council, and any scaffold standing on or over the public highway needs a licence through Essex Highways. Only the scaffolding contractor may apply, so we do; Essex Highways takes 15 working days from receipt to process it, the licence is valid for two weeks from the date of issue and can be applied for initially for up to 26 weeks, and a renewal takes three working days from receipt. On a High Street or Hythe front the licence date sets the start date; on most of the peninsula the scaffold sits on private land and needs none.

Roofers, renderers, builders on barn conversions, riverside trades, and homeowners whose builder has said "sort the scaffold". The tag on the standard is our word that the scaffold was safe on the date of inspection. One number, start to finish.

We cover Chelmsford to the west and Rayleigh to the south. South Woodham Ferrers and Witham are covered too. See all areas, or request a survey.

Ring 07490 092490, WhatsApp the same number, or fill in the survey card.

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