Outline and Detailed CLPs

They are the two stages the guidance identifies. The Outline CLP is written during the planning and design stage and is submitted with the planning application. The Detailed CLP is written during the pre-construction stage and is used throughout the construction programme. The Outline version necessarily contains fewer details, because at that point detailed design has likely not occurred and a contractor has likely not been commissioned.

With the planning application. Its job is to show the authority that the construction phase has been thought about before permission is granted, and to commit to measures that the Detailed CLP will later expand.

Pre-construction, to discharge the relevant condition. The guidance describes Detailed CLPs as extensive plans required to be produced prior to construction, and notes that the planned measures committed to in the Outline CLP are carried forward by reference into the Detailed CLP.

Because of sequencing. At application stage the detailed design usually is not finished and no contractor has been appointed, so specific delivery numbers, vehicle types and phasing cannot honestly be given. The guidance acknowledges this directly. An Outline CLP that pretends to detailed certainty invites challenge later when the real numbers differ.

Usually the applicant's transport or logistics consultant, working from the design and programme assumptions available. For higher impact developments the guidance says additional details are required with input from a construction logistics specialist. The contractor then inherits those commitments and develops the Detailed CLP.

It can develop and refine it, but the planned measures committed to in the Outline CLP are carried forward by reference. Quietly dropping a commitment made at application stage is one of the more reliable ways to have a discharge application refused, because the officer can compare the two documents.

Some authorities and guidance describe a third tier used where a project's circumstances change materially during construction, or where a specific phase needs its own plan. Practice varies between authorities, so confirm locally whether one is expected and what it must cover before producing it.

Yes. The guidance includes implementing, monitoring and updating as one of the required sections, and describes the Detailed CLP as being used throughout the construction programme. A CLP is a live document, not a submission you file and forget.

CLOCS publishes a toolkit including a CLP Tool, a completed CLP Tool example, an Outline CLP Template and a completed Outline CLP Template example, available on the CLOCS website. The templates are a structure, not a substitute for site-specific content. A template returned with generic answers is the most common reason a submission goes back.

The guidance describes it as a spreadsheet tool to produce consistent outputs for CLPs. It helps standardise the way vehicle movements and measures are presented, which makes review quicker and comparison between schemes easier.

Timescales vary by authority and by the quality of the submission. In practice the controllable variable is whether the first submission is complete, because an incomplete one generates a request for further information and restarts the clock. Allow for the authority's standard determination period for condition discharge plus time for at least one round of comments.

Not if it is required by a pre-commencement condition. Starting work in breach of a pre-commencement condition can put the whole permission at risk, and is a matter to take legal advice on rather than a judgement call to make on site.