You need the Section 50 licence (unless you are acting under a statutory right) if you need to excavate or place or maintain equipment or pipe work / cables within the highway, including if you wish to place, retain and thereafter inspect, maintain, adjust, repair, alter or renew apparatus, or change its position or remove it from the highway. 

You can only start the work when the licence has been issued and signed by the Street Works Manager and returned to you for retention (the licence will be a pdf document). Any work done prior to this will constitute an illegal opening of the highway (this may not apply in the case of an emergency opening).

If the start date has changed from the one on the original licence application you must inform the Street Works team immediately by email Section50@worcestershire.gov.uk so that road space can be booked for the new dates.

Please note:

• Section 104 agreement needs to be obtained from water utility company for new clean water connection
• Section 106 agreement needs to be obtained from Severn Trent Water, for new sewerage and drainage works within the highway boundary
• applicants must inform the Statutory Undertakers of the proposals and request plans indicating the location of any apparatus they may have in the vicinity of the proposed works
  • no work should be carried out until this has been done - failure to comply can result in Statutory Undertaker’s apparatus being damaged – this can be expensive and dangerous
• please refer to Code of Practice for the Co-ordination of Street Works (GOV.UK) regarding late submission of notices
• if for any reason we need to check any information submitted we may need to contact you for clarification - please see the Council's Privacy Notice for further information about how we use your information.

The application will take 28 days to process so please give as much notice as possible.

You can track your application via your dashboard based on the request ID, the location, the type of application, the work type, the road name, the town, postcode or the date the works are expected to happen.

The cost of  the Section 50 licence is £650, but there may be additional fees for larger or more complex works: 

• the £650 fee is for up to 200m length, £1000 (deep open excavation), £250 is payable per additional 200 metres (or part), an additional £200 per street is payable for work in adjacent streets
• this is payable by credit/debit card or purchase order, please note that an additional £40 is applied for any payments that require a purchase order

Does your organisation already have an account?

If your organisation has already applied for permits or licences such as road closures, skips etc. via our online systems, your organisation should already have an account. Please go to the apply page to find more information on what you need to know before you apply for the Section 50 licence.

If your organisation does not yet have an account with us, please go to the create a company account page.