Streatham and SW16
Rubble and spoil lifted off your SW16 site without leaving a container on the A23.
Grab lorry hire in Streatham is the collection of soil, rubble, concrete and green waste from SW16 sites by an eight-wheel grab lorry. Its crane loads from up to 7.5 metres away, each job takes 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes, and waste moves under 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.
The A23 through Streatham Hill is a building site in its own right until spring 2027, with lane closures, road closures, staggered side-road closures and bus stop suspensions along the route. Our grab hire services work around that by keeping the vehicle mobile: the lorry arrives, loads and leaves, so nothing of ours is left standing on a road that TfL is actively rebuilding.
Loading is done by the crane rather than by hand. Reach is up to 7.5 metres from the side of the vehicle, depending on the vehicle and site conditions, so a lorry on a side street can clear a front garden, a side return or a driveway without entering the property.
One load holds 20 cubic yards and up to 16 tonnes, subject to loading and road restrictions. Given that Streatham spoil is mostly heavy London Clay, weight usually fills the lorry before volume does. Pricing is project based with a free quotation, and same-day collection is often possible but always subject to availability.
Everything in Streatham hangs off the A23. Streatham High Road and Streatham Hill form the historic London to Brighton road and the spine of the district, and the A23 here is a GLA Road managed by Transport for London rather than by Lambeth. Crossing it is the A214, running as Tooting Bec Road and Streatham Common North on an east to west line that continues through West Norwood, Crystal Palace, Anerley and Elmers End. Mitcham Lane runs south-west from the High Road towards Mitcham, and Leigham Court Road climbs east off the A23, forming one boundary of the Streatham Wells parking zone.
The July 2025 traffic orders changed the approach to a great many sites. TfL banned all vehicles except pedal cycles from turning right into the A23 Streatham Hill from side roads including Amesbury Avenue, Barcombe Avenue, Barrhill Road and Wyatt Park Road, and imposed no-entry restrictions on those side roads and on Telford Avenue, alongside northbound and southbound bus lane extensions on the A23. Ardwell Road and Tierney Road, off the A23 at Streatham Hill, now carry a prohibition of motor vehicles with pedal cycles excepted. In practice a driver cannot simply turn out of a residential street back onto the main road, so the route in and the route out have to be planned as two different things.
Above that sits the construction programme itself. TfL and Lambeth Council are rebuilding the A23 through Streatham Hill between summer 2025 and spring 2027, adding pedestrian crossings, protected cycle lanes, continuous bus lanes with relocated parking and loading, new traffic signals at Telford Avenue outside Brixton Bus Garage, tree planting and sustainable drainage, with some side roads closed or restricted throughout. Parking is tightening too: Lambeth consulted in April and May 2025 on the Streatham Vale North and South controlled parking zones, Zones X and Y, operating Monday to Friday from noon to 2pm and expected to come into force on 1 December 2025. Further north, the Streatham Wells Low Traffic Neighbourhood on Valley Road North and South, Leigham Avenue, Gleneldon Road and Culverhurst Gardens ran from 23 October 2023 until it was suspended at 1pm on Thursday 7 March 2024; the signs and filter posts came out, but planters on the quieter roads and the parklets remain, and they still take up kerb space.
Two further Streatham facts shape a job. First, disposal: Lambeth’s reuse and recycling centre is on Vale Street in West Norwood, SE27 9PA, free but restricted to Lambeth residents with photo identification and proof of address at every visit, and it admits cars only. Vans and commercial vehicles are refused entry and are not permitted to unload outside the site, so there is no council tip anywhere near Streatham that will take a van or tipper load. Second, the ground: Lambeth’s Surface Water Management Plan records a Chalk aquifer overlain by the Thanet Sand Formation, the Lambeth Group, the London Clay Formation and the Claygate Member, with London Clay dominating the borough’s surface bedrock, a geological fault running south-west to north-east through Streatham Hill, and small deposits of the Black Park and Lynch Hill Gravel Members around Streatham and Knights Hill. Expect heavy clay, with pockets of terrace gravel, and price the job by tonnage.
We take soil, stones, muck, concrete, rubble, hardcore, demolition waste and green waste. That is the bulk of what a loft conversion, a rear extension or a garden rebuild in SW16 produces once the skips of packaging have gone.
We also deliver, so the same booking can bring in MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil or shingle. On a street affected by the A23 works, halving the number of lorry visits is worth more than usual.
The exclusions are short but firm, and none of them can travel on a standard booking.
The A23 works, the red route and the parking zones all penalise anything that has to stay put.
| Factor on an SW16 street | Grab lorry | Skip hire |
|---|---|---|
| Road under construction until spring 2027 | Vehicle is present only while loading | Container occupies space through closures and lane changes |
| Red route frontage on the A23 | Loading is arranged off the red route, and the lorry then moves on | Placement is not an option where stopping is prohibited |
| Controlled parking zone hours | Timing is chosen to suit the restriction | Space has to be reserved and suspended in advance |
| Heavy London Clay | Up to 16 tonnes taken in one movement | Weight limits bite well before the container looks full |
| Local tip as a fallback | Not needed, the load leaves with a registered carrier | Vale Street admits cars only, so there is no local van or tipper option |
Streatham is inside the London-wide Low Emission Zone, which charges lorries over 3.5 tonnes that do not meet the Euro VI standard.
Streatham is roughly 11 minutes by car from our operating centre at Pear Tree Farm, Featherbed Lane, Croydon, which makes it one of the shorter runs we do and leaves room for a second load on the same day. Grab lorry hire in Streatham can therefore often be fitted in at fairly short notice, availability permitting.
A loaded eight-wheeler adds roughly 15 to 20 per cent to a car journey time, and the A23 construction scheme can add more than that at short notice. We give typical times rather than guaranteed ones, and we would rather build the roadworks into the estimate than pretend they are not there.
Ask for the waste carrier registration number and expect a transfer note. Duty of care sits with whoever produced the waste, so a cheap cash collection that ends in a fly-tip on the common is the client’s problem as much as the driver’s.
Prime Waste Services Ltd is registered under CBDU480663 and holds operator licence OK2066087, with four vehicles authorised at the Croydon operating centre. Company number 14793814, trading since April 2023, fully insured, with qualified and screened operatives who are CPCS compliant and CSCS registered. The Epsilon cranes are inspected regularly and we hold a 5.0-star customer rating.
No, though they change the approach. The TfL and Lambeth scheme along Streatham Hill runs to spring 2027 and brings lane closures, road closures and staggered side-road closures, so we plan the route in and the route out separately. Because the lorry only stops long enough to load, roadworks affect the timing of a booking far more than they affect whether it can happen.
No. Lambeth’s reuse and recycling centre on Vale Street in West Norwood is for Lambeth residents only, requires photo identification and a booked slot, admits cars only, and refuses vans, commercial vehicles and commercial waste. Vehicles are not allowed to unload outside the site either, so trade waste from an SW16 job has to go with a registered carrier.
No permit is required, because nothing is left on the highway for a permit to cover. What matters instead is the standing point: the A23 is a red route managed by Transport for London, the July 2025 orders restrict several side roads, and the Streatham Vale controlled parking zones operate Monday to Friday from noon to 2pm. We check all of that before the lorry sets off.
Predominantly heavy London Clay. Lambeth’s Surface Water Management Plan records London Clay dominating the borough’s surface bedrock, over the Lambeth Group, Thanet Sand and the Chalk aquifer, with a fault running through Streatham Hill and small Black Park and Lynch Hill gravel deposits nearby. Clay is dense, so a modest-looking excavation can still fill a lorry by weight.
Yes. MOT Type 1, crushed concrete, ballast, sharp sand, building sand, topsoil and shingle can be delivered and the spoil taken away on the same booking where the timings work. On a Streatham street affected by the A23 scheme and by parking restrictions, one combined visit is considerably easier to arrange than two separate ones.
Sources and further reading
Call 07778 541120 with the SW16 address and the material, and we will find a legal loading point that works around the roadworks.
