Site Clearance Across Surrey,Kent And Sussex:Ground Ready For What's Next

The first hour on any clearance job is spent walking the boundary and working out what is scrub, what is a genuine tree, and what is worth keeping. A hedge line that looks like one continuous mass of green from the house often turns out to be hawthorn and blackthorn with several self-seeded ash and sycamore standing inside it, some of them fifteen years old and well past 'sapling'. Separating those out before the chainsaws start means the right method gets used on each, hand tools and a brush cutter for genuine scrub, felling technique for anything with real girth.

This stage is also when Jack identifies anything with a TPO, anything in a conservation area, and anything structurally compromised, a leaning stem, a split union, a fungal bracket at the base, that changes the plan or the order of works. On plots around Godstone and Lingfield that back onto woodland, this walk-round often turns up more mature timber hidden in the boundary than the client realised was there.

Clearance almost always runs from the boundary inward and from the largest stems to the smallest, so access stays open for the chipper and the crew is not working back over ground they have already cleared. Any mature trees earmarked for removal come down first using standard felling or sectional dismantling depending on the target zone, then the surrounding scrub and self-set saplings are cut back with chainsaws or a brush cutter.

Stumps are handled last, once the crew knows exactly which ones need grinding for future planting, paving or building work and which can simply be left low-cut. On a plot destined for landscaping or an extension, grinding depth and root plate removal are agreed with the client or their groundworker before the machine goes in, because it is far cheaper to get that right on the first pass.

Overgrown hedgerows and scrub are exactly where birds nest, and it is an offence to disturb an active nest under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Between March and August the crew checks hedge lines and dense growth for active nests before cutting, and where one is found, work on that section is delayed until the nest is naturally vacated. This is one of the main reasons a clearance is easier and quicker to plan for autumn or winter.

Winter working also gives clearer sightlines through leafless growth, making it far easier to spot dead or structurally compromised stems hidden inside a hedge or thicket, and it does less damage to any lawn or planted areas the clearance route has to cross.

A mixed clearance produces a lot of material, brash from scrub and hedging, plus proper cordwood from any mature trees felled. All of it is chipped and cleared as standard. If you want to keep any of the timber, seasoned logs are available at £100 per tonne bag and woodchip at £50 per truck load up to 3 tonne, which is often worth having on hand if beds or paths on the newly cleared plot are about to need mulching anyway.

Large volumes of chip from a bigger clearance can also be left on site in agreement with the client, useful as a temporary ground cover or access track while further landscaping or building work is planned.

It is common for a genuinely valuable tree to be standing inside an otherwise overgrown plot, an oak that predates the scrub around it, or a specimen tree in a conservation area that the rest of the site has simply grown up around. Where that is the case, the tree is identified, checked against the local authority's TPO register, and, if consent is needed, the application is made on your behalf before any surrounding clearance work starts.

This matters because clearance work can inadvertently affect a protected tree even without cutting it directly, root disturbance from stump grinding nearby, or a change in light and wind exposure once the surrounding growth is removed, can both be relevant to a council. Flagging this at the quote stage avoids problems once the plot is opened up.