Scaffolding in Witham

Witham is two old centres with a ring of London round them. Chipping Hill, half a mile north of the Roman road, is the Saxon village around St Nicolas' church, rebuilt about 1330, with the old forge still standing. Newland Street is the market town the Knights Templar laid out along the Colchester road, chartered in 1212, with Georgian brick fronts on older timber frames and the Town Hall at number 61. Round them is a band of inter-war and early post-war housing, and beyond that the estates that came after 1966.

In 1964 Witham, then a town of about 10,000, was chosen as a London overspill town and set to grow to about 25,000 in ten years. The first families arrived in August 1966, on the Templars estate, and the Greater London Council went on to build three large estates on the west and north sides of the town and a smaller one to the south. Those houses are now sixty years old: 1960s and 70s terraces and semis with the first generation of concrete tiles at the end of its life. A re-roof on a mid-terrace needs edge protection front and back, a loading bay for the tiles and a chimney stack scaffold for the party stack, and there is no rear access except through the house or across a neighbour, so the rear lift is agreed with the neighbour before the day. See roofing scaffolding and extension and new build scaffolding.

The Witham Town Centre conservation area was designated in December 1968 and takes in Newland Street and the streets off it, Bridge Street, Guithavon Street, Collingwood Road and Maldon Road among them. Jobs here are shop fronts with flats above, peg-tile and slate re-roofs on listed frontages, lime render and stacks. The scaffold stands on the pavement with a fan or a protected walkway so the shop trades on. On a listed wall the ties go through openings rather than into drilled anchors, and that is agreed with the builder at the survey.

Maltings Lane, south of the town, went up in 2002 and 2003, and Witham has kept growing since. Houses of that age are at their first extension and first flat-roof replacement. The big housebuilders bring their own scaffold; the small builder on an infill plot does not, and we do sites up to about fifteen houses, one programme and one number.

The A12 passes Witham at junctions 21 and 22, and the old road through the town is now the B1389, so the lorry is off the trunk road and on site in minutes. Witham station has been on the Great Eastern main line since 1843 and the junction for Braintree since 1848, and the streets round it are parked up. Newland Street is the hard one: the pavement is the only footprint and the parking is short-stay. We agree the delivery slot and where materials land before the day.

Braintree District Council is the planning authority. The roads belong to Essex County Council, so a scaffold on the public highway is licensed 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. A house on its own drive on the Templars estate needs none. A Newland Street frontage does, and the lead time goes into the programme.

We cover Chelmsford to the south-west and Brentwood beyond it down the A12. Maldon, to the south-east, is 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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