Scaffolding a Bondi unit block over the footpath starts with a $550 council application

What Waverley Council charges for footpath hoarding

Council's application page says its authorisation is required when construction or other works will impact a footpath, such as the erection of hoarding or scaffolding, or the storage of building materials. It asks applicants to allow two weeks for processing.

The fees sit in section 36.12 of Council's Pricing Policy Fees & Charges 2026-2027. The application fee is $550.00 and is not refundable. After that the schedule charges $9.00 per square metre per day for a Standard A Class hoarding less than 1 metre from the boundary, and $63.50 per square metre per week for a Standard A or B Class hoarding more than 1 metre from the boundary. Each prop is $100.00 a week. The schedule says the fees must be paid three months in advance, and it marks none of them as attracting GST.

Why the footpath belongs in the access line of a quote

One published Sydney guide puts scaffolding alone above A$15,000 on some concrete cancer jobs. Council's fees are charged by Council, not by the scaffold company, and the per-square-metre part keeps running for as long as the hoarding stands on public land.

A quote that prices the scaffold should say whether it also covers the application, the per-square-metre fee and the three months paid up front. If it does not, somebody else is paying them, and the committee should know who before it approves the work.

When the job uses a lift instead

Not every elevation is scaffolded. Where a cherry picker, a scissor or boom lift, or a mobile crane occupies the footpath, the road or a parking lane, Waverley needs a separate permit to occupy or close a public road or footway. Council's page says public liability insurance of at least $20 million, a traffic guidance scheme or traffic management plan, and a NSW Police notification are generally required, and it asks for two weeks here too.

The 2026/27 schedule charges $21.00 per metre per day to close a footpath, cycleway, verge or open space for that kind of equipment. An application lodged less than five working days before the work starts carries a $413.00 late fee, and Council notes that fee applies only if the application can still be processed in time.

Putting the dates in order

The two-week processing time runs before the scaffold goes up, so it belongs in the programme alongside the regulated design that a class 2 building needs before remedial work starts. Ask the contractor who lodges the footpath application, whose name the permit is in, and what happens to the three months' fees if the job finishes early. The schedule's only general rule is that where a service is not provided, Council may refund or credit the fee at its discretion, so that is a question for Council rather than an assumption.