Site Clearances
Land back under control. Vegetation, scrub, trees, and stumps cleared for development, sale, safety, or sanity, with the wildlife checks done properly and every tonne of arisings recycled through our own yard instead of priced into your invoice as landfill.
Closed-Loop Recycling · Zero Fly-Tipping Risk
What We Do
From jungle to workable ground.
Site clearance is the controlled removal of vegetation, trees, scrub, and stumps from land that needs to become something else: a development plot, a saleable asset, a safe site, or simply a field again. Silver Tree Services clears sites across Gloucestershire and surrounding counties with tree crews, tractors and flails, chippers, and stump grinders all in-house, which means one contractor takes the ground from overgrown to ready, with the legal checks, the paperwork, and the waste stream handled inside one quote.
How it works
Step One
Walk & Assess
We walk the ground, check for protected trees, nesting habitat, and access constraints, and agree the finish standard.
Step Two
Permissions & Ecology
TPO consents, conservation-area notices, and nesting-season checks sequenced before machinery is booked.
Step Three
Clear
The right kit for the growth: flails, chainsaws, chippers, and grinders, working to RAMS with the site secured.
Step Four
Process & Hand Over
Arisings chipped and removed to our recycling yard, stumps ground where specified, ground left to the agreed finish with photos to prove it.
Development & Pre-Construction Clearance
Vegetation clearance ahead of construction: scrub, trees approved for removal, hedgerow sections, and stumps taken out so groundworks can start on schedule. We sequence around the constraints that actually delay developments, the 1 March to 31 August bird nesting season chief among them, and coordinate with your arboricultural consultant’s tree protection plan so retained trees survive the build. CSCS-carded crews, RAMS per site, and the clearance documented for the planning file.
You might need development clearance if:
- Groundworks are programmed and the plot is still green
- Planning consent specifies trees to remove and trees to protect
- The nesting season window is about to close on your start date
- Your principal contractor wants one accountable clearance sub
| Job | Typical Scope | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Small plot strip | Scrub + minor trees | From £300 |
| Full development clearance | Phased, with protection works | POA |
Overgrown & Neglected Land Recovery
The rescue job: land that’s been let go for five, ten, twenty years, brambles head-high, self-set sycamore and ash establishing, fence lines swallowed, and a buyer, insurer, or neighbour now forcing the issue. We knock it back in the right order, flail what flails, cut what needs cutting, grind what’s left, and either hand back bare workable ground or put it straight onto a maintenance cycle so it never gets this way again.
You might need land recovery if:
- A purchase, sale, or valuation needs the land presentable
- Self-set trees are establishing where they'll cost real money later
- Brambles and scrub have closed paths, gates, or boundaries
- An insurer or council has raised the state of the site
- You've inherited ground nobody's touched in a decade
| Job | Typical Scope | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Paddock/garden-scale recovery | Flail + cut + clear | From £650 |
Tree & Woodland Clearance
Where clearance means trees, not just scrub: thinning overstood plantations, removing storm-wrecked belts, clearing self-set woodland from development land, or taking out failing boundary lines. NPTC-certificated crews fell and dismantle to BS3998:2010, timber is extracted rather than abandoned, and protected-tree paperwork (TPO consents, six-week conservation-area notices, felling licence checks where volumes require) is sequenced before the saws. Habitat features worth keeping get flagged honestly, because not everything green should go.
You might need tree clearance if:
- A tree belt or plantation is failing, dangerous, or in the way
- Self-set woodland has established on land you need back
- Storm damage has left a stand part-fallen and unsafe
- Felling volumes might need a felling licence and you're not sure
| Job | Typical Scope | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Boundary line / small belt | Fell, extract, chip | POA |
| Woodland-scale clearance | Licensed, phased | POA |
Stump & Root Clearance
Clearance isn’t finished while the stumps are still in: regrowth restarts, machinery can’t work the ground, and fencing or foundations can’t run. Our commercial stump grinding teams follow the clearance through, grinding lines and fields of stumps with machines sized to the job, to depths agreed against what the ground is for next: turf depth for amenity, deeper for replanting or construction.
You might need stump clearance if:
- A cleared site still can't be cultivated, fenced, or built on
- An old hedge or tree line has left a row of stumps in the boundary
- Regrowth keeps reclaiming ground you've already paid to clear
| Job | Typical Scope | Guide Price |
|---|---|---|
| Stump line (hedge/boundary) | Ground below grade | POA |
| Field-scale grinding | Per programme | POA |
Wildlife, Waste & The Law
Clearance is where contractors most often get clients into trouble, so here’s how we don’t. Nesting season: scrub and rough ground are prime habitat, active nests are protected year-round under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and we programme major clearance for September to February, with pre-checks where in-season work is unavoidable. Protected species: badger setts, reptile habitat, and bat features get flagged at the walk-round, not discovered by an excavator. Waste: every load of arisings goes to our Shurdington yard for processing into biomass, chip, and firewood under our ISO 14001 system, with documented waste transfer, which is why our pricing beats landfill-route quotes and why nothing from your site ever appears in a lay-by with your paperwork in it.
You should ask any clearance contractor:
- How will you handle nesting season on this programme?
- Where exactly do the arisings go, and can you document it?
- Who checks for protected trees and species before machines arrive?
- What does "cleared" mean in writing: flailed, cut, ground, or bare?
| Compliance item | How we handle it | Cost to you |
|---|---|---|
| Nesting checks | Pre-works survey, programmed timing | Included |
| Waste documentation | Closed-loop yard, transfer notes | Included |
Why choose Silver Tree Services
Silver Tree Services has traded for over 20 years from Shurdington, Cheltenham, with 30+ qualified staff across seven specialist teams, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, ARB Approved Contractor status, and SMAS SSIP accreditation. Crews are NPTC-certificated with IPAF and CSCS where work requires it, RAMS are produced per site, DBS-checked operatives are available for sensitive settings, and public and employers’ liability insurance covers every job. The client list, NHS, Gloucestershire Police, Stroud District Council, Savills, the Church of England, is the vetting evidence.
Areas we cover
Site Clearances across Gloucestershire, including Cheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, Cirencester, and the Cotswolds, with commercial work across Bristol, Bath, Swindon, and surrounding counties.
Frequently Asked Questions About Site Clearance
Frequently asked.
How much does site clearance cost?
Garden and paddock-scale recovery in Gloucestershire typically starts from around £650, small development plot strips and larger and phased clearances priced per programme after walking the ground. The honest drivers are growth density, tree content, access, stump numbers, and finish standard, and our closed-loop recycling keeps pricing keen because your arisings become our biomass feedstock rather than a landfill cost. Free written quotes: 01242 472560.
Can you clear a site during bird nesting season?
Sometimes, with checks, and we’ll be straight about it. The main season runs 1 March to 31 August, active nests are protected year-round under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and scrub is exactly where birds nest, so Silver Tree Services programmes major clearance for autumn and winter wherever the job allows. Where a development programme can’t wait, qualified pre-checks confirm what can proceed and what must be phased, which protects your project legally as well as the wildlife.
What happens to all the cleared material?
It comes back to our Shurdington yard and gets used: timber processed into firewood and biomass fuel, brash chipped for landscaping mulch, and green waste recycled, all under our ISO 14001 environmental system with waste transfer documentation supplied. That’s why Silver Tree Services’ clearance pricing undercuts landfill-route contractors across Gloucestershire, and why you’ll never find your site’s waste fly-tipped with your name attached.
Do I need a felling licence to clear trees?
Possibly. Felling more than 5 cubic metres of timber in a calendar quarter (or 2 cubic metres if sold) generally needs a felling licence from the Forestry Commission, with exemptions for gardens, dangerous trees, and some development consents, and TPOs and conservation areas add their own consents on top. Silver Tree Services checks what your clearance actually triggers across Gloucestershire sites and sequences the paperwork before machinery is booked, because unlicensed felling carries real penalties.
Can you clear sites with difficult access?
Yes, it’s half the job in this county. Tracked chippers and pedestrian grinders handle gateways and tight routes, flail tractors with side-arms reach banks and awkward ground, and where machines genuinely can’t go, crews cut and carry. The walk-round settles the access plan before pricing, so a Gloucestershire site behind a narrow lane or a single field gate gets quoted for reality, not for a fantasy of open access that falls apart on day one.
Will you maintain the land after clearing it?
Yes, and it’s usually the smart move: clearance is expensive once and cheap to keep. Silver Tree Services puts recovered ground onto maintenance cycles, flail visits for paddocks and rough ground, or full grounds maintenance for amenity areas, so the scrub never re-establishes. Developers holding land between phases use the same arrangement to keep plots insurable and tidy across Gloucestershire, on the same contract as the original clearance.
Ready When You Are
Overgrown in, workable out.
Send photos or a what3words pin and we’ll walk the ground, flag the legal bits, and quote the whole job in writing.
Or call · 01242 472560