An alternative to skip hire, loaded and gone in one visit

Does a skip on the road need a council licence?

A skip on the road needs a council licence, while a skip on your own drive doesn't. Bromley Council only accepts licence applications from registered skip firms. According to Bromley's highway licence page (external site), the licence costs £50 for two weeks and takes two working days. A skip in a restricted bay also needs a parking suspension.

Bromley's bay suspensions (external site) cost £40 per bay per day plus an admin fee, with three working days' notice. They don't cover red routes. The A21 from the M25 to Bromley Hill and the A232 from Locksbottom to West Wickham are run by TfL, not Bromley (external site), so a skip on either road goes through TfL instead. Our guide to skip permit costs in Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich sets out each council's fees, renewals and bay suspension charges.

How do skip permits work in Orpington and Dartford?

Orpington follows Bromley's rules and Dartford follows Kent's. Orpington is in the London Borough of Bromley, so the same £50 licence applies there, and both the A21 and the A232 pass through the area. The narrow lanes of Chelsfield, Farnborough Village and Pratt's Bottom, and conservation areas such as The Priory and Broomhill, can make a skip outside the house awkward. Our truck only needs to stop while the crew loads. See our Orpington page for local collection and parking details.

Dartford is in Kent, and Kent County Council is the highway authority. The skip company applies for the licence through KCC's StarGo portal, and the fee is £45 a week for 2026 to 27 (Kent highway fees (external site)). On permit roads such as Mount Pleasant Road, a skip in a bay also needs a Dartford bay suspension (external site) at £100 per bay per week, with at least two weeks' notice. That's £45 plus £100 a week in fees before any waste goes in. More on the town is on our Dartford page.

How do a skip and a rubbish collection compare?

A skip and a rubbish collection differ on space, loading, timing, paying and whether you need to be home.

• Space: a skip needs room on your drive, or a licence and sometimes a bay suspension on the road. We only need somewhere for the truck to stop while we load.
• Loading: you fill a skip yourself. Our crew does the loading, and the loading time is built into the price.
• Timing: a skip sits outside until the firm collects it. With us the waste leaves on the same visit.
• Paying: a skip is a fixed size, and you pay for that size full or half empty. With us you pay for the space your waste takes in the truck.
• Being home: you don't need to be in for a collection, as long as we can reach the waste and you've told us where it is.

We don't pass parking fees, fines or the congestion charge on to you.

When might a skip suit you better?

A skip makes sense for a long DIY project where waste comes out a bit at a time over several weeks and you have room for it on the drive. You can throw things in as you go, and Bromley's road licence runs for two weeks if it has to go on the street. For that kind of job, a registered skip firm is the sensible choice.

If the waste is already in a pile, or the work will be done over a weekend, a collection often fits better. You can also book us more than once on a longer job, paying each time for the space used. Our builders' waste page covers renovation waste, including the separate price for heavy rubble and soil.

What does a rubbish collection cost instead of a skip?

A rubbish collection costs from £60 plus VAT to £360 plus VAT, priced by load size across 13 sizes. As a guide, a minimum load at £60 plus VAT is about 10 bin bags or one armchair. A quarter truck at £130 plus VAT is roughly a single room's bags and small furniture, or a small garden tidy. A half truck at £180 plus VAT is roughly a single garage or a one-bedroom flat's furniture, and a full truck at £360 plus VAT suits a larger clearance. Heavy loads of rubble, bricks and soil are £360 plus VAT for up to 15 cubic yards or 1,200kg, as our rubble removal page explains.

A few items carry an extra charge on top of the load, such as mattresses, fridges and tyres. They're listed under extra items on our pricing page. You pay on completion by card, cash or bank transfer, and you get a waste transfer note and a receipt.