Coulsdon CR5 by the load
Graded stone, sand and ballast in, flinty clay and rubble out, on one lorry visit.
Aggregates in Coulsdon are delivered loose by grab lorry across CR5, covering MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, shingle and topsoil. Prime Waste Services Ltd runs 20 cubic yard grab bodies from a Croydon operating centre 4.2 miles away, under waste carrier registration CBDU480663.
Send the site postcode, what is on the ground and when you need it moved. We will come back with a written quotation. There is no charge for a quote and no obligation to book.
Lines are answered by the people who run the lorries, not a call centre. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability.
Material in and spoil out on the same stand. We deliver aggregates and materials using the same grab lorry that clears excavated ground, so the crane places the stone where you want it and then lifts your flinty clay, rubble or hardcore into the body for the return leg. One visit instead of two matters on the sloping, hemmed-in plots that are typical of CR5.
The load is loose, the body holds 20 cubic yards, and we carry up to 16 tonnes per job subject to loading and road restrictions. The Epsilon crane reaches up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and site conditions, so a rear garden off Chipstead Valley Road or a terraced plot off Coulsdon Road can usually be served from the carriageway.
Quotations are free and priced by project. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability. Tell us the material, the rough tonnage, the postcode and what is coming out, and the quote covers the whole movement rather than half of it.
Coulsdon has an unusually clear split between its through route and its working streets. The A23 Farthing Way relief road takes the London to Brighton traffic around the town, crossing Marlpit Lane on a road bridge and passing beneath the live London to Brighton railway at Coulsdon Town station in a 40 metre jacked box tunnel. Building it took around 150,000 cubic metres of excavation and 7,500 cubic metres of concrete, along with 10,500 metres of cabling and 39,000 shrubs, and it also delivered a new access road to the Coulsdon North Industrial Estate.
Brighton Road, the old A23, is where the town actually operates. Most of Coulsdon’s retail and commerce sits along it, including Coulsdon Library at CR5 2NH. Chipstead Valley Road runs west out of the town centre up the dry valley towards Chipstead and Woodmansterne, Coulsdon Road climbs east and south towards Old Coulsdon and the Downs, and Lion Green Road runs off Brighton Road past a narrow strip of light industrial buildings. Marlpit Lane serves the Marlpit industrial and business park, which houses storage, distribution and technology uses.
Two redevelopment sites explain much of the local demand for material. The Lion Green Road scheme took a 1.46 hectare council-owned surface car park of 124 spaces, plus the derelict Sovereign House laundry building and a former electricity sub-station, for 157 homes in five blocks of five to seven storeys with 50 per cent affordable housing and 116 replacement public car park spaces. The site slopes down from the rear towards Lion Green Road and is bounded to the west by an embankment that is a Scheduled Monument, so levels and boundaries there are tightly constrained.
Cane Hill Park is the larger picture. The 205 acre former Cane Hill psychiatric hospital site next to the town centre, about ten minutes’ walk from Coulsdon South station, is one of London’s biggest projects to redevelop disused public land: the land is owned by GLA Land and Property, Barratt was selected as developer in December 2011, construction began in September 2015 and the scheme provides up to 675 new homes with 25 per cent affordable.
Seven materials cover almost every Coulsdon job: MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil and shingle. MOT Type 1 is primary crushed stone graded to the Department for Transport specification and compacts into a load-bearing sub-base. Crushed concrete is recycled material graded to do the same work wherever the specification permits it.
Ballast is sharp sand and gravel already blended, ready to go into the mixer with cement for footings and slabs. Sharp sand on its own goes into concrete, screed and paving bedding. Building sand is finer and belongs in mortar for brickwork and rendering, and using it in a concrete mix gives you a weak slab. Shingle is washed rounded gravel for drainage, land drains, soakaways and pipe surround, or for decorative surfaces where it stays visible.
On the way out, the lorry takes soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste. Asbestos, gas bottles, batteries, railway sleepers, mattresses, tyres, fridges, freezers, paint, chemicals and liquids are not accepted on standard bookings.
The seven aggregates we carry, and the job each one is actually for.
| Aggregate | What it is | Typical use | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOT Type 1 | Primary crushed stone graded to the Department for Transport specification | Compacted sub-base under drives, patios, slabs and hardstandings | Lay and compact in layers on a prepared formation |
| Crushed concrete | Recycled concrete crushed and graded | Sub-base, oversite fill, piling mats and haul roads | Use where the specification permits recycled granular material |
| Ballast | Blended sharp sand and gravel | Concrete for footings, foundations and slabs once cement is added | Ordered by volume for the mix, not as a loose surface |
| Sharp sand | Coarse washed sand | Concrete, screed and bedding for paving | Gritty to the hand, which is how you tell it apart |
| Building sand | Fine, soft sand | Mortar for bricklaying, blockwork and rendering | Not a concrete sand; it will weaken the mix |
| Shingle | Washed rounded gravel | Land drains, soakaways, pipe surround and decorative surfaces | Chosen to drain rather than to carry load |
| Topsoil | Screened growing medium | The finished growing layer over made-up levels | Goes on last, over prepared and loosened ground |
Sub-base carries the load, shingle moves the water, and the two are not interchangeable on a Coulsdon formation.
It genuinely does, and for once the design favours a lorry. The 1.7 kilometre A23 Farthing Way relief road opened in December 2006 with one southbound lane, two northbound lanes and a priority lane for buses, heavy goods vehicles and cyclists, and it removes about 80 per cent of traffic from the town centre. It runs on south over the North Downs towards Hooley and the start of the M23, so a loaded eight-wheeler can approach from the depot without threading the old high street.
Our operating centre at Pear Tree Farm, Featherbed Lane, Croydon CR0 9AA is about 4.2 miles away, roughly 13 minutes for a car on the A23 Brighton Road and Coulsdon Road. A loaded eight-wheeler adds roughly 15 to 20 per cent to a car journey time, and the figure is typical rather than guaranteed.
Once you leave the relief road the constraints reappear. Brighton Road, the old A23, still carries most of the town’s retail and commerce and is where deliveries actually stop. Coulsdon also sits on the southern edge of Greater London, so the ULEZ and the London-wide Low Emission Zone both apply here, charging lorries over 3.5 tonnes that do not meet the standard, while the M25 a few miles south past Hooley is outside the zone.
It gives you very little to build on and very little worth keeping. Croydon Council’s Level 1 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment states that the borough’s bedrock is Middle and Upper Chalk in the south, overlain further north by the Thanet Sand Formation, Lambeth Group, Harwich Formation and London Clay Group, so the south of the borough, Coulsdon included, sits on permeable chalk rather than London Clay. Drift deposits are dominated by River Terrace Deposits with Clay with flints along the southern boundary, which is why Coulsdon spoil is typically flinty clay over chalk.
Flinty clay is awkward material. It is neither a clean granular fill nor a growing medium, so it usually leaves site rather than being reworked, and the formation it leaves behind needs imported graded stone to carry any load. That is the practical reason so many Coulsdon jobs are a two-way movement rather than a delivery.
Water is the other factor. The same assessment notes that extensive aquifers are found in the chalk of the south of the borough and that most watercourses there are spring-fed, indicating groundwater levels at or very close to the ground surface in some locations. Before designing a deep basement, a soakaway or a lowered formation in CR5, that is worth checking rather than assuming chalk will always be dry.
Not into the boot of a car, which is the point most people discover too late. Croydon Council accepts no trade waste at any of its reuse and recycling centres, cars with trailers cannot be used at any site, and a maximum of six bags of rubble applies per visit. Vans are only accepted at Factory Lane in West Croydon, only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 11am and 1pm, only up to 5 metres long and 2.6 metres high, and tippers and Lutons are barred outright.
Purley Oaks on Brighton Road, CR8 2BG, is the nearest site to Coulsdon and visitors have to queue on Brighton Road, the A235, north of the site, with no access from the Purley side. For commercial arisings from a Coulsdon job, none of that is a route.
Prime Waste Services Ltd is registered as an upper tier waste carrier under CBDU480663 and holds operator licence OK2066087 for four vehicles at the Croydon operating centre. Company number 14793814, trading since April 2023, fully insured, with CPCS compliant and CSCS registered operatives. The material leaves under a transfer note, which is what your duty of care obliges you to be able to show.
Yes, and the crane is what makes it workable. Reach is up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle depending on the vehicle and site conditions, so material can be placed at the level it is needed rather than tipped at the top of a slope and barrowed down. Send a photograph of the frontage and the fall with your enquiry.
Either will make a compacted sub-base, so the decision usually comes down to the specification. Adopted works and some warranties name MOT Type 1, which is primary graded stone. Crushed concrete is a recycled graded material that performs the same function wherever recycled granular fill is permitted, and it is a sound choice for oversite fill, haul roads and domestic bases.
Yes, on the same visit wherever the timing allows. Soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste all go on a standard booking, and the crane reloads the body once the incoming stone is off. The material leaves under waste carrier registration CBDU480663 with a transfer note, so your duty of care is documented.
It depends on the volume of concrete and the mix your job calls for, so work out the finished slab or footing volume in cubic metres first and tell us the mix. We will convert it into a load. A full body is 20 cubic yards with a limit of 16 tonnes per job, subject to loading and road restrictions.
The relief road takes most through traffic away and includes a priority lane for heavy goods vehicles, which helps. Coulsdon is inside the ULEZ and the London-wide Low Emission Zone, both of which apply to lorries over 3.5 tonnes that do not meet the standard, so the constraint is on the vehicle rather than on the street in most cases.
Sources and further reading
Call 07778 541120 with your Coulsdon postcode, the material and the tonnage, and we will quote both legs of the trip.
