Skip hire in Pontefract, made simple
Serving Pontefract for 30+ years. Slide to find the right size, then get a fast, no-obligation quote.
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Skip Permits in Pontefract
Pontefract is covered by Wakefield Council. If your skip has to go on the road, it needs a road licence from the council. We arrange it for you.
| Licence needed | Yes, for any skip placed on the road. The council applies this through its online road licence form, which asks for a start and end date. |
|---|---|
| Fee, duration and notice | The council's pages do not publish these. We confirm them at booking. |
| Blocking the road | Obstructing the highway is an offence under section 137 of the Highways Act 1980, and builders' skips are listed by the council as a hazard. |
| On your drive | No road licence needed on private land. Tell us at booking. |
Many of the older terraced streets around the town centre have no off road parking, so check access before the lorry arrives. Tell us at booking where the skip will sit and we will confirm whether a licence is needed.
Pontefract Household Waste Recycling Centre
Pontefract does not have its own council tip. The nearest is Glasshoughton in Castleford, around three miles away, run for Wakefield Council by Biffa.
| Nearest site | Glasshoughton, Flass Lane, Castleford WF10 5JW. |
|---|---|
| Other sites | Denby Dale Road, Wakefield WF2 7AH. South Kirkby, Brigantian Way, South Kirkby WF9 3TH. |
| Opening hours | Not listed on the council pages. Extended summer hours run until 25 October 2026, with some sites open until 8pm on set days. Check the Biffa Wakefield site before you go. |
| Resident permit | Free. You need one to prove you live in the Wakefield district. Apply online at biffawakefieldpermits.co.uk, call 0345 8 506 506, or get one at a site. |
| Trailers | A trailer under 6ft by 4ft on a domestic car needs only the resident permit. Larger trailers up to 8ft by 6ft on a car need a commercial vehicle permit. Any trailer on a van, pick up or SUV needs a commercial vehicle permit. Trailers over 8ft by 6ft are not allowed. |
| Rubble | Brick and rubble are accepted with quantity limits. The council does not give the figures, so check before you go. |
A skip saves you the permits, the limits and the repeat trips to Castleford. Pick a size from our guide below and we will deliver it to your door.
Skip hire FAQs.
We provide cheap, local and reliable domestic skip hire in Pontefract and within a 30 mile radius.
It’s not just a case of how much waste you have! You also need to consider how much room you have on your site and will then need to think about the type of waste you will be disposing of. For example if the waste is heavy (e.g. soil/brick/rubble) then you will be restricted as to how large a skip you can have.
When only a single skip is expected, we strongly believe that it’s better to hire a skip that you may not quite fill, as opposed to ordering a skip which ends up being too small meaning a second skip is then required as a result. In other words it’s better to overestimate than underestimate!
When filling a skip it can only be loaded up to the level of the actual skip itself.
It is important that your site foreman and operatives are aware of this as it is actually against the law for drivers to carry over loaded skips on the highways. Likewise, using boards around the skip in an attempt to increase it’s capacity (known in the trade as ‘greedy boards’) is illegal.
If a driver arrives on site to find an overloaded skip they are likely to turn away and leave without the skip, thus potentially incurring additional transport charges.
Though we try to be as flexible with hire periods as possible, as a general rule the maximum hire period is 7 days.
Of course should your site be an ongoing one where numerous skips are required and exchanged on a regular basis then there is nothing to worry about. If however, you require a skip that is likely to be needed for more than 7 days without exchanges, we request you inform us at the time of ordering as a rental charge may be applicable.
Yes. Though any skip that needs to be sited on a public highway, pavement or council owned verge, first requires permission from the local authority responsible.
Though the charges involved and the length of time it takes an application to be processed varies from council to council, in the vast majority of cases we can arrange the required permit on your behalf. Depending on the local authority in question, application periods can be anything from ‘same day’ to 4 weeks, so when you know that a permit is likely to be required on an upcoming site it is vital that you give us as much notice as possible to avoid any unnecessary delays.
Please also note that as the hirer, the lighting and coning of the skip whilst it is placed on public land is your responsibility, though we are usually able to arrange for the hire of these items on your behalf too.
A standard skip or roll-on-off vehicle usually requires a minimum of 10ft (3.3m) width and approximately 13ft (4m) headroom to safely gain access to a site. If your site access falls a little below these requirements we are able to (in most areas) arrange for smaller skips (depending on waste type) to be delivered on smaller lorries.
If you are in any doubt about the access to your sites, we are here to help, so just ask!
There are certain types of waste that cannot be placed in general waste skips under any circumstances.
Examples of such waste types include (but are not limited to): asbestos, fridges, freezers, batteries, tyres, gas cannisters, paint tins, food waste, fluorescent tubes, liquids, TV sets, computer monitors, plasterboard, electrical items (WEEE), mattresses, tree stumps, tree roots, carpet, vinyl, astroturf, rubber matting & roof felt.
It is vital that you always inform us of exactly what your are intending to dispose of at the time of ordering!
Choose your skip size in Pontefract
Not sure which size you need? Compare dimensions, capacity and typical uses — every size below is available in Pontefract.
Local area guide
Skip hire in Pontefract
Pontefract is a market town in West Yorkshire, sitting around 13 miles south-east of Leeds, with a population of around 30,000. Its name is Norman Latin for broken bridge, and it was one of the most important towns in medieval Yorkshire — a royal borough with a castle that Oliver Cromwell described as the strongest inland garrison in the kingdom.
Pontefract Castle's history is exceptionally dark. Richard II was imprisoned here after his deposition in 1399 and died in the castle, almost certainly murdered — Shakespeare has the deed done at Pontefract in Richard II, and refers to it in Richard III as bloody Pomfret. Anthony Woodville, Richard Grey and Thomas Vaughan were executed here in 1483 on Richard of Gloucester's orders. The castle withstood three sieges in the Civil War, the last ending only after the King's execution, and Parliament ordered it slighted in 1649 at the townspeople's own petition, fearing a fourth siege.
Pontefract's other claim is liquorice. The plant was grown in the fields around the town from the sixteenth century, and the Pontefract cake — a small flat disc of liquorice stamped with the castle and an owl — has been made here since 1760. Haribo and others still produce liquorice in the town, and Pontefract holds an annual liquorice festival. The liquorice fields also gave Philip Larkin the title of one of his poems.
The town has a Norman parish church and the extraordinary St Clement's Chapel beneath the castle, along with the Hermitage — a subterranean chapel and well cut into the rock by a fourteenth-century hermit, reached by a spiral stair. Pontefract Racecourse has the longest continuous flat racing circuit in Europe at over two miles.
Pontefract sits close to the A1(M) and M62, with three stations — Monkhill, Baghill and Tanshelf — giving services to Leeds, Wakefield and Doncaster. Neighbouring communities include Castleford, Knottingley, Featherstone, Normanton and Ackworth.
Housing ranges from Georgian and earlier property around the Market Place and Micklegate to Victorian terraces built for the pits and the liquorice works, interwar and post-war estates at Chequerfield and Carleton, and modern development on former colliery land, with property among the more affordable in West Yorkshire.