Prevent dust from construction sites

What you must do

Dust can come from a range of sources on-site, including:

• unmade haul roads
• material stockpiles
• air flush from drilling operations.

Your local council can take action against you if your activities create levels of dust that cause, or have the potential to cause, damage to property or disturbance to the surrounding community. Your local council environmental health department can:

• restrict your operations
• stop your operations
• require you to take steps to reduce the nuisance.

Noise, odour and other nuisances

You should take measures to reduce the risk of dust causing a nuisance to the local community.

Good practice

• Maintain a high standard of housekeeping on site.
• To ensure that dust arising from loaded wagons leaving the site is kept to a minimum, use covered wagons and skips.
• Where necessary, use wheel-washing facilities at exits onto public roads.

Wheel washing at construction sites

• Damp down stockpiles and unmade haul roads, and keep metalled haul roads clean using road sweepers.

Road sweepers at construction site

Considerate Constructors Scheme