Lewisham SE13 and Ladywell
Loaded and gone inside the permitted hours, with nothing left standing on a red route.
Grab lorry hire in Lewisham is a road-side collection service for soil, rubble, concrete, hardcore and green waste across SE13. Our grab lorries take 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes a load, with crane reach around 7.5 metres. Prime Waste Services is registered carrier CBDU480663 under operator licence OK2066087.
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.
This is the question that shapes the day here, so it is worth answering first. Goods vehicles over 18 tonnes are banned from most Lewisham borough roads from 9pm to 7am on weekdays and from 1pm on Saturday until 7am on Monday, with only the A205 South Circular exempt from the borough ban. In practice, a loaded grab works Monday to Friday daytime and Saturday morning, and that window is what we book against.
There is a second rule underneath it. Goods vehicles over five tonnes gross weight may not park on the public highway anywhere in the borough between 6.30pm and 8am, so a vehicle cannot simply wait overnight for an early start.
Anything over 44 tonnes counts as an abnormal load and needs at least two days’ notice to the police, the council and the relevant bridge authorities. That is outside the range of a standard grab job, but it is the reason plant movements onto a site need planning that a muck away run does not.
The town centre is held together by two TfL routes. The A20 runs in as Loampit Vale past Lewisham station, remodelled as part of the Lewisham Gateway works, and out east as Lee High Road towards Lee Green and Eltham. The A21 comes through as Molesworth Street, carrying both A21 and A20 traffic, and continues as Lewisham High Street towards Rushey Green and Catford. Both are red routes through the centre, and the council requires TfL permission for abnormal loads routed over them.
Off the main lines there are two useful classified routes. The A2210 Thurston Road and Jerrard Street runs alongside the railway on the west side of the centre, and the A2211 Lewisham Road heads north towards Blackheath Hill and Greenwich. Those often make better loading approaches than the High Street, which is the busiest frontage in SE13.
The Lewisham and Lee Green low traffic neighbourhood covers the eastern side of the town centre and has been enforced by ANPR cameras rather than planters since October 2022. Driving through a filter attracts a 160 pound penalty charge, reduced to 80 pounds if paid within 14 days. Cameras do not move for a working vehicle, so we plan the approach and the exit before dispatch rather than trusting a satnav to route around them.
The ground under the town centre is mixed. The council’s Strategic Flood Risk Assessment records the southern half of the borough as underlain by the London Clay Formation, with ribbons of Lambeth Group and Thanet Formation through the north and some White Chalk Subgroup beneath parts of Deptford and Lewisham, plus Kempton Park Gravel and patches of alluvium along the Ravensbourne and the Quaggy, the two rivers that converge in the centre. An excavation can therefore meet clay, granular river gravel and made ground within a short distance, and wet gravel is a good deal heavier than the same volume dry.
The lorry stops on the carriageway, the operator drops the legs and the Epsilon crane lifts material over the boundary into the body. Because nothing is left behind, our grab hire services work on frontages where a container simply cannot be placed.
One load is 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes, subject to loading and road restrictions, with reach of up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle depending on the vehicle and site conditions. On a Ladywell terrace that usually means loading from the road without anyone entering the property.
Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability, though the borough’s lorry hours narrow the useful part of the day. A morning booking is the safer plan on a Saturday.
In this borough the comparison is mostly about hours and filters rather than volume.
| Constraint | Grab lorry | Skip hire |
|---|---|---|
| Lorry curfew hours | Booked inside the permitted window, loaded in minutes and out of the borough | Delivery and collection vehicles face the same curfew, so exchanges are slower to arrange |
| Overnight parking ban | The vehicle leaves as soon as it is loaded | A container stays on the street through every restricted period |
| Lewisham and Lee Green low traffic neighbourhood | The route is planned around the ANPR filters before the vehicle sets off | Every delivery, exchange and collection risks the same filter |
| Red routes on the A20 and A21 | Loading position is agreed in advance and occupied briefly | A container cannot stand on a red route frontage |
| Load size | 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes at once, subject to loading and road restrictions | Repeat visits for the same quantity of clay or gravel |
| Best suited to | Muck away and heavy arisings from SE13 sites and town centre plots | Light waste on a site with off-highway space for the container |
Driving through a modal filter is charged at 160 pounds, reduced to 80 pounds if paid within 14 days, so the route matters whichever option you choose.
We take soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste. Town centre digs here can turn up clay, river gravel and made ground within a few metres of each other, and a grab handles all three without sorting.
Deliveries run the other way in the same vehicle: MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil and shingle, placed by crane rather than tipped at the kerb.
The exclusions are the same as anywhere on our standard bookings, and they are worth checking before the driver is on the road.
About seven miles and roughly 22 minutes by car, using the A205 South Circular via Catford and then the A21 Lewisham High Street. Our operating centre is at Featherbed Lane, Croydon CR0 9AA, where four vehicles are authorised under licence OK2066087.
A loaded eight-wheeler adds roughly 15 to 20 per cent to a car journey time, and these are typical figures rather than promises. The A205 is also the one borough road exempt from the 18-tonne night and weekend ban, which makes it useful for more than just its speed.
Because responsibility for the waste does not end when it leaves the site. Handing material to an unregistered carrier keeps the liability with the producer, and a transfer note is what closes that off.
Prime Waste Services Ltd holds waste carrier registration CBDU480663 and operator licence OK2066087, is company number 14793814, has traded since April 2023 and is fully insured. Transport for London states that the ULEZ, LEZ and Direct Vision Standard all operate in the same area, so a tipper or grab working here has to meet the London-wide Low Emission Zone standard as well as the ULEZ standard.
“Very efficient, and customer service was second to none, would definitely use this company again in the future.” (Barry Turner)
Yes. Goods vehicles over 18 tonnes are banned from most Lewisham borough roads from 9pm to 7am on weekdays and from 1pm on Saturday until 7am on Monday, with only the A205 South Circular exempt from the borough ban. Vehicles over five tonnes also cannot park on the public highway anywhere in the borough between 6.30pm and 8am, so collections are booked inside the daytime window.
It changes the route rather than blocking the job. The Lewisham and Lee Green low traffic neighbourhood has been enforced by ANPR cameras since October 2022, and driving through a filter attracts a 160 pound penalty charge, reduced to 80 pounds within 14 days. We work out an approach that stays outside the filters, so tell us the exact address rather than the general area.
Not as a standing container. The A20 and A21 through the town centre are TfL red routes, and the council requires TfL permission for abnormal loads routed over them. A grab lorry occupies the carriageway only while it loads, which is why it is usually the workable option on the High Street and on Molesworth Street. The loading position is agreed before the vehicle leaves the depot.
It is a household site, so it is not the route for trade waste from a Lewisham job. Landmann Way, SE14 5RS admits vans Sunday to Friday from 8am to 3pm and on Saturday from 8am to 11am, and the borough weighbridge sits on the same site. Waste from commercial work should leave on a registered carrier’s vehicle with a transfer note recording the transfer.
A day ahead is comfortable, and same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability. The drive from our Croydon operating centre is about seven miles, roughly 22 minutes by car via the A205 South Circular and the A21, with a loaded eight-wheeler adding around 15 to 20 per cent. The borough’s lorry hours make an early booking more useful than a late one.
Sources and further reading
Call 07778 541120 with the SE13 address and we will fix a time for grab lorry hire in Lewisham that works within the borough’s restrictions.
