Involving a CDM Co-ordinator
For a building project you are legally obliged to appoint a Construction Design Management Co-ordinator before any planning application is submitted. This means that, as soon as you have decided to put in a planning application and begin talks with your architect or surveyor about this, you must decide who will be the CDM Co-ordinator.
The job of the CDM co-ordinator is to ensure that, during each stage of the planning process, health and safety implications are taken into consideration. Generally speaking, your architect or surveyor may take on this role in addition to their other role. However, this may incur extra costs.
It is important to remember that this appointment is a legal obligation the responsibility for which belongs to your organisation. While your architect or surveyor may remind you of this obligation, you cannot rely on this. It is your responsibility to ensure that someone has taken on this role.
The CDM Co-ordinator's role finishes at the point at which building work starts on the site.
The Association for Project Safety has a list of CDM Co-ordinators.