Out on the lanes around here the bonfire is still the default answer to a big garden clearance, and we understand why. There is no lorry to book and nothing to pay for, and if you have half an acre of hedge cuttings the pile looks like a problem that fire will solve. Burning garden waste in Charnock Richard causes more trouble than it saves though, and it goes wrong in ways people do not anticipate until they are dealing with the aftermath. If you are clearing land or a large garden, booking Charnock Richard skip hire costs less than most people assume and removes every one of these headaches.
What the law actually says about burning garden waste in Charnock Richard
There is no blanket ban on a domestic garden bonfire, which is where the confusion starts. What there is instead is a nuisance provision, and it bites once smoke affects a neighbour rather than at any particular time of day. If a council receives complaints and is satisfied the smoke amounts to a statutory nuisance, it can serve an abatement notice on the householder, and ignoring one of those becomes a criminal matter with a fine attached. On a rural lane where the nearest house is a field away that risk is low. On the newer closes and the properties clustered along the main road it is a real one, and prevailing wind from the west will put your smoke over somebody’s washing more often than not.
Two things are clearly not permitted at all. Burning household waste, meaning plastics, packaging, furniture, treated timber or anything that is not garden material, is an offence rather than a grey area. So is burning waste that came from a business, including a landscaping or tree surgery job, unless the operator holds a specific exemption. If a contractor offers to burn your clearance on your land, that is your liability sitting in the field, not theirs.
What a bonfire leaves you with
Even when it is legal it is often the wrong tool. Green material cut in summer is full of water and does not burn, it smoulders, which is exactly the condition that produces heavy smoke and complaints. A pile that has stood a fortnight will burn far better than one cut yesterday, so the moment you most want rid of it is the moment it burns worst.
Then there is what stays behind. A large bonfire sterilises the ground beneath it and leaves an ash circle that will not grow anything for a season or two, along with wire, nails, staples and fence fixings sitting in the ash where a mower or a horse will find them later. Anything that does not burn, which usually means soil clinging to roots, stone, plastic pots and old netting, is still there in the morning and still needs shifting. Nobody has ever finished a bonfire and had nothing left to move.
The risk side is the one that keeps people awake. Fires get away in dry spells, hedgerows go up faster than anyone expects, and a fire spreading from your land onto a neighbour’s is your responsibility. Add smoke drifting across the road on a still evening and the day gets expensive very quickly.
The alternative and what it actually takes
A skip takes the whole lot, green and otherwise, in one go. Where a bonfire deals only with the burnable portion, a mixed load handles the roots, the soil, the old fence panels, the netting, the pots and the rubble from a wall you took down while you were at it. For most large domestic clearances around here a 4 tonne midi skip covers a substantial hedge reduction and a general tidy. Where you are clearing an overgrown paddock, taking out mature shrubs with the root balls attached or dealing with several years of neglect, the 8 tonne builders skip is the sensible choice, and the reason is weight rather than volume, because soil on roots is heavy and it comes as part of the deal.
Our guide to green waste removal across West Lancashire goes into what green loads can include. If you are making good afterwards where a hedge line or an old bonfire circle has been, a delivery of screened top soil onto the bare ground is what actually gets grass established there again.
Where the skip stands out here
Most properties in this area have the space to take a skip on their own land, which keeps it simple. Where a skip has to stand on the road, Lancashire County Council acts as the highway authority under the Highways Act 1980 and a permit is required, currently charged at thirty six pounds per month. We arrange that when you book. On the narrower lanes tell us about overhead cables and low branches on the approach, because our lorry needs more headroom than a car and a wasted journey helps nobody.
What happens to a green load
Green waste is one of the better streams we handle. It comes back to our own recycling centre where it is separated and processed rather than buried, which is a considerably better outcome than a column of smoke and a dead patch of ground. We run the same service for customers booking Coppull skip hire and for the properties covered by Euxton skip hire, so if you are working across more than one site we can plan it together.
Before you strike a match on a pile you are not sure about, ring our team on 01257 752399 and ask what it would cost to have it taken away properly. You may find it is a good deal less than you expect, and you can request a price for your clearance online at any hour if that suits you better.
