What’s so great about London.and not. – Considerate Contractors

If you walk past a construction site in London, it will be nicely covered. The lorries (aka trucks) transporting rubble will be covered in such a way that no dust flies around. There will likely be no loud banging, no cloud of dust, and no long queues of large vehicles occupying the roads. Glorious London!

That is the result of the CCS, the Considerate Contractors Program – “Scheme” in local parlance. CCS, I read somewhere, has 5 pillars. Care about Appearance; Respect the Community; Protect the Environment; Care about Safety; and Value the Workforce.

In other words, London acknowledges that construction sites are a gigantic source of potential nuisance to their neighbors. But also that such nuisance can, with care and consideration, be mitigated. Demolition causes nuisance. As does foraging. As do deliveries. And so on. There is noise, dust, and traffic jam. There is the sore eye etc.

London has looked all this in the face, and its response has been CCS. Constructors can join, and clients (and that must mean property developers and investors) can also join.

CCS is now a nation-wide program. But it was first invented – where else – in and by London. In 1997. How civilized! CCS is not a government scheme, and it is not mandated by law. Rather, it is a voluntary program run by the construction industry itself. Even that is civilized. I suspect CCS was designed in the shadow of a big Government stick: “do something on your own or trust that we’ll regulate the daylight out of you.” But whatever the circumstances, as far as I can see it has worked.

To me, CCS is all that is gentle and civilized about London. It delivers what it says: consideration for the neighbors. I realize I may be missing a lot here. First, CCS is also about safety and worker comfort, and I am overlooking that part of the program. Also, CCS frustrates many people, no doubt – perhaps it is cumbersome and costly, and bureaucratic. Or else it does not do anywhere enough. Or both. Well, I’ll give you my answer to that. Try to live without CCS, see where that takes you, tell me how better off you are without a CCS.

London, it seems to me, is so much better off for inventing The Considerate Constructor Scheme. And I wish every city around the world followed London’s lead when it comes to CCS.

Consideration is a big building block of civilization. Long Live London. And Long Love London.