The conversation

The current City of Melbourne Code of Good Practice at Construction Sites, 2002 (the current Code) sets out requirements for protection of the public and Council’s assets adjoining construction sites within the City of Melbourne. The current City of Melbourne Construction Management Plan Guidelines, 2005 (the current CMP Guidelines) detail what information Council requires in advance of construction commencing to be satisfied that the construction process can and will be appropriately managed. The purpose of both documents is to encourage construction activity while at the same time:

  • minimising the risk of injury to the public
  • protecting Council’s assets
  • improving the design quality of temporary structures in the city
  • ensuring activity on site is managed in accordance with relevant regulatory requirements (such as Council’s Local Laws).

The current Code was originally developed in 2002 to assist with the development of Docklands. The current CMP Guidelines were developed in 2005 as a supporting document to the Code.

While there has been administrative review from time to time, there was a need for a substantive review of the Code.

Gathering insights

A draft version of the new Code of Practice for Building, Construction and Works was made publicly available in November 2021. The community were invited to provide feedback from 22 November to 22 December 2021.


Who we reached

334

customers contacted directly

78

pieces of feedback

1126

website visitors

17

respondents

What we heard

A third of respondents were gantry contractors, 23 per cent were from an industry association and 17 per cent were residents. The remainder were:

  • transport workers
  • builders
  • researchers
  • building authority representatives
  • workers
  • visitors
  • hoarding contractors.

Feedback related to 14 sections of the draft Code. The most popular topic was gantries, which received 36 per cent of the feedback, followed by noise and nuisance (9 per cent), third party approvals (8 per cent) and worksites (8 per cent).

The feedback received included:

Impact

A review of the community’s submissions was completed in January 2022 and they were considered in the final draft of the new code.

The final Code of Practice for Building, Construction and Works was adopted by Council on 15 February 2022.

Code of Practice