Merstham RH1, North Downs foot
Crane-loaded collections and aggregate drops across RH1, from clean sand to Gault clay.
Grab lorry hire in Merstham is a crane-loaded collection and delivery service for RH1 sites, running from a Croydon operating centre. Each lorry takes 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes per job, reaching up to 7.5 metres from the kerb. Prime Waste Services is registered carrier 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.
You give us the RH1 postcode, the material and a rough quantity, and we quote the project rather than the hour. Our grab hire services are dispatched from Pear Tree Farm on Featherbed Lane in Croydon, so a Merstham job is a short motorway-corridor run rather than a cross-county trek.
On the day the operator sets the vehicle down on the carriageway, deploys the stabilisers and works the crane from the road. Reach is up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and site conditions, which covers most frontages on the residential roads around Portland Drive and Delabole Road.
One lorry holds 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes per job, subject to loading and road restrictions. Nothing is left behind on the highway. Same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability, and where a job needs both directions we bring stone in on the same visit that takes spoil out.
Merstham sits at the foot of the North Downs where the chalk escarpment meets the greensand belt, and the ground reflects it. Reigate and Banstead Borough Council’s Strategic Flood Risk Assessment records the band through Reigate, Redhill and Merstham as underlain by Upper Greensand, Gault, Folkestone Beds, Sandgate Beds, Hythe Beds and Atherfield Clay, with widely varying permeability. Surrey County Council confirms that Folkestone Formation silica sand is worked commercially as close as South Merstham. Arisings here can therefore run from clean sand through to Gault clay, sometimes on the same site, and the two behave very differently in a grab and on a weighbridge.
That sand is a working industry rather than a footnote. Sibelco UK’s North Park Farm Quarry takes silica sand from the Folkestone Formation, low in iron and aluminium and used for glass, sports sands and industrial applications, across a site of about 178.84 hectares running from M25 junction 6 in the east to South Merstham near the M23 in the west, and it is restored without importing any waste material. The village consequently sits inside a busy minerals corridor with direct motorway access at both ends.
In the village the constraints are small-scale but real. Surrey County Council has an approved minor scheme for improved pedestrian crossing points on the A23 High Street at the Quality Street junction, the historic core, and another for a build-out traffic calming feature on Delabole Road opposite the entrance to Furzefield School, which narrows the carriageway to a single running lane at that point. Bletchingley Road runs east to west through the village and has had pedestrian crossings installed, including a zebra crossing, as part of the regeneration programme, with Woodlands Close running off it.
One constraint deserves particular care. Merstham Recreation Ground, immediately west of the former library site on Weldon Way, RH1 3QB, contains a scheduled ancient monument in the form of a medieval moated site, which constrains groundworks and excavation on adjoining land. The former library itself was consented under application 22/02067/F for demolition and redevelopment as 11 affordable dwellings. Elsewhere the Merstham regeneration programme with Raven Housing Trust and Surrey County Council covers 48 units plus new shops at Portland Drive, a Croudace Homes development at Woodlands Close, retail and residential on the Triangle site beside the Merstham Community Hub, and conversion of the former Iron Horse pub into four retail units and 10 apartments. Wells Place Industrial Estate, with 31,387 square metres of floorspace across 12 units and predominantly storage and distribution uses, remains the main commercial and haulage location in the village.
For collection: soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste. For delivery: MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil and shingle. Because the local ground can produce anything from clean sand to Gault clay, it is worth telling us which you have, as it changes how much goes in before the weight limit is reached.
Standard bookings exclude asbestos, gas bottles, batteries, railway sleepers, mattresses, tyres, fridges, freezers, paint, chemicals and liquids. Raise these when you book so we can point you at the correct route.
The point to plan around is tipping. Earlswood Community Recycling Centre on Horley Road, Earlswood, Redhill RH1 6PN, run by SUEZ Surrey on behalf of Surrey County Council, is the nearest community recycling centre to Merstham. It is household waste only, pedestrians are not admitted, and vans, pickups and trailers need a Surrey CRC permit valid at just nine sites. Business waste is not accepted at all and Surrey directs businesses to a waste transfer station instead. If you are clearing an RH1 site as a trade, the local tip is not the answer.
On Merstham’s short residential roads, several of them narrowed by traffic calming, the question is how much kerb you can afford to give up and for how long.
| Criterion | Grab lorry | Skip hire |
|---|---|---|
| Load per visit | 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes per job, subject to loading and road restrictions | A single fixed skip size, filled by hand until volume or weight runs out |
| Kerb occupied | Only while loading, then the road is clear again | For the whole hire period, on streets where parking is already tight |
| Permit | Not needed for the lorry | Normally needed from the council for a skip on the public highway |
| Handling | Crane lifts from the road, up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle | Every load barrowed to the skip, whatever the ground is like |
| Where it wins | Regeneration plots, narrow residential roads and any site near the Delabole Road build-out | Sites with an off-road compound or a wide private drive |
We quote per project rather than from a rate card, because access and material change the job.
Grab lorry hire in Merstham starts from Pear Tree Farm, Featherbed Lane, Croydon CR0 9AA, roughly 23 minutes away by car. Add about 15 to 20 per cent for a loaded eight-wheeler, which accelerates slowly and takes longer through junctions. Any time quoted is typical rather than guaranteed.
Merstham lies outside Greater London, so the TfL Ultra Low Emission Zone and Low Emission Zone do not apply in the village itself. TfL states both schemes operate across all London boroughs and the City of London, with the LEZ applying to lorries, vans and specialist heavy vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, so loads run north into London still have to meet LEZ standards. Since our vehicles are based in Croydon, they already do.
Traceability, and someone accountable for the vehicle. Booking grab lorry hire in Merstham from a licensed operator gives you both. Prime Waste Services Ltd holds waste carrier registration CBDU480663 and operator licence OK2066087, with four vehicles authorised at the Croydon operating centre, under company number 14793814, trading since April 2023.
Duty of care keeps the waste your responsibility until an entitled carrier takes it, so each load leaves with a transfer note. Our operatives are CPCS compliant and CSCS registered, the business is fully insured, and the Epsilon cranes are inspected on a regular schedule. On the regeneration sites being delivered with Raven Housing Trust and Croudace Homes, that documentation is normally a condition of getting a vehicle onto the plot at all.
In most cases yes, with the setting-down point agreed first. Delabole Road has an approved build-out opposite the Furzefield School entrance that narrows the carriageway to a single running lane, and several village roads are short with tight parking. Send the postcode and a photograph of the frontage and we will tell you where the vehicle can stand and what the crane will reach.
It varies within short distances. The band through Reigate, Redhill and Merstham is underlain by Upper Greensand, Gault, Folkestone Beds, Sandgate Beds, Hythe Beds and Atherfield Clay with widely varying permeability, and Folkestone Formation silica sand is worked commercially at South Merstham. Expect anything from clean free-running sand to heavy Gault clay, which changes the weight of each load considerably.
No. Earlswood Community Recycling Centre on Horley Road, Redhill RH1 6PN is household waste only. Business waste is not accepted, pedestrians are not admitted, and vans, pickups and trailers need a Surrey CRC permit valid at just nine sites. Surrey County Council directs businesses to a waste transfer station instead, which is why trade arisings from Merstham need a registered carrier.
It can. Merstham Recreation Ground contains a scheduled ancient monument, a medieval moated site, immediately west of the former library site on Weldon Way, and that constrains groundworks and excavation on adjoining land. We are hauliers rather than consenting authorities, so check the position with the borough council before you dig, then book the lorry once the extent of the work is settled.
Yes. We deliver MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil and shingle, placed by crane rather than tipped at the gate. Combining a delivery with a collection on the same visit halves the vehicle movements through the village, which is welcome on roads with new crossings and traffic calming going in.
Sources and further reading
Call 07778 541120 with the RH1 postcode and the material, and we will quote the job the same day where we can.
