Yes, we deliver the Dragon Equipment CR450 to Cannock and across Cannock Chase district. Our yard at Ford, near Shrewsbury, is roughly 41 miles away. The usual run is the M54 to junction 1, then the A460 north. We drop the crusher off, run through how it works and pick it up afterwards.
- From our yard
- About 41 miles · 55 mins
- Route
- M54 to junction 1, then the A460 into Cannock
- Council
- Cannock Chase District Council
- Waste regulator
- Environment Agency
What makes on-site crushing a good fit for Cannock?
This was a coalfield district. Pits such as the Valley Colliery at Hednesford, which opened in 1874, drew people in and shaped the settlements around Cannock. By 1982 most local pits had shut, and Littleton Colliery closed in December 1993, the last on the Cannock Chase Coalfield. What the mining years left behind is a spread of housing, old works yards and reclaimed land, much of it laid in concrete.
The district is also short of open land. Around 60% of it is Green Belt, and the Cannock Chase National Landscape and Special Area of Conservation cover much of the rest. When building room is that limited, it makes sense to reuse the material already on a plot. A day on the CR450 can turn 30 to 40 tonnes of broken concrete into usable hardcore, depending on the material.
How did housing in Cannock, Hednesford and Heath Hayes develop?
Hednesford grew fast once the Uxbridge Pit opened, and its town centre was built almost entirely between 1860 and 1880. Heath Hayes still has a 19th-century high street at its core. Those older parts are brick-built, with garden walls and outbuildings that tend to come down in bits during a renovation. Behind the shops and terraces, many yards have been concreted, extended and patched over the decades, which adds up to a good mixed load for the jaw.
Around them, the twentieth century filled in. The council built large estates at Pye Green and Green Heath, some of them before 1939, and there were prefabricated bungalows at Pye Green too. The council's own character study describes Heath Hayes and Wimblebury as dominated by post-war housing, with newer developer estates at Keys Park. Semi-detached homes make up 47% of the district's households, and the concrete drive is standard on most of them.
What does the new Cannock Chase Local Plan mean for building work?
The Cannock Chase Local Plan 2018 to 2040 was adopted on 23 March 2026. It sets a requirement of 6,308 homes, including 500 towards the shortfall across Greater Birmingham and the Black Country. Two Green Belt sites at Heath Hayes do much of the work: about 700 homes south of Lichfield Road, and about 435 east of Wimblebury Road, next to woodland on the site of the old Cannock Chase Colliery No.8.
The former Rugeley Power Station is the district's largest brownfield site, with around 1,000 of its homes on the Cannock Chase side. Employment land extends Kingswood Lakeside and the Watling Street Business Park. In the town centre, the multi-storey car park and the Forum shopping centre have already been demolished, and in August 2026 the council voted to keep and refurbish the Prince of Wales Theatre.
What do the old mines mean for ground under a Cannock slab?
A lot of the coalfield falls in the Mining Remediation Authority's Development High Risk Area, where shafts, shallow workings or old opencast sites are recorded near the surface. New buildings there need a coal mining risk assessment. Breaking out an old drive is a surface job, but if you plan to dig deeper, check the mining records first. The Mining Remediation Authority, formerly the Coal Authority, publishes the data, and a conveyancing search will often have flagged it already.
Some of the newest ground is reworked mining land. Kingswood Lakeside, beside the A5 and junction T7 of the M6 Toll, was built on the former Poplars opencast site, and making the platforms took around 500,000 cubic metres of earthworks. Sites like that come with hardstanding and service yards, and the hardcore under them can be crushed and reused when units are refitted.
How does the Cannock Chase heathland affect new homes nearby?
Cannock Chase was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1958 and renamed a National Landscape in 2023. Part of it is a Special Area of Conservation for its dry heath, and because most visitors live close by, every net new home within 15km must pay a per-dwelling mitigation contribution, which is reviewed each April. All of Cannock is inside that zone.
The contribution applies to new dwellings, not to replacing a drive or a patio. For builders doing infill or a garden plot, it is one more cost on the job, which makes savings elsewhere more welcome. Crushing the demolition rubble and using it as sub-base for drives, paths and the building pad cuts muck-away and the amount of new stone you have to buy in.
What do people crush in Cannock?
Post-war drives in Heath Hayes and Wimblebury
Many homes on these estates have had the same concrete drive for decades. Lift it with a breaker, feed the pieces into the CR450 and use the output to bed the new drive. A mini excavator keeps the jaw busy, though a small drive can be hand-fed.
Older plots at Pye Green and Green Heath
Some of the council housing here is older than 1939, and prefabs once stood at Pye Green. Rebuilds and extensions often turn up old bases, garage slabs and brick outbuildings, all of which crush down into hardcore.
Unit refits on Kingswood Lakeside
Kingswood Lakeside and the Watling Street Business Park are growing under the new Local Plan. When a tenant changes or a yard is reconfigured, damaged hardstanding can be crushed on site and laid back under the new surface.
Victorian walls and yards in Hednesford
Hednesford's colliery-era centre has brick boundary walls, outhouses and patched yards. Crushing the brick and concrete gives you fill for paths and shed bases, and the CR450 is narrow enough for most side gates.
Do you need a permit to crush concrete in Cannock?
Crushing concrete, brick or tile with a machine is a regulated activity, even on your own site, and on a self-hire the person running the crusher is treated as the operator. Before you start, contact Cannock Chase District Council. The council decides whether the job needs a mobile plant (Part B) permit, or whether it is small enough to register a T7 exemption with them instead.
Reusing the crushed material on the same site is normally covered by a U1 exemption, registered with the Environment Agency, which has charged for exemptions in England since July 2025. Keep asbestos, plastics, timber and metal out of the feed. We’re happy to talk it through when you book, but the council has the final say.
Where around Cannock do we deliver?
- Hednesford
- Heath Hayes
- Wimblebury
- Chadsmoor
- Pye Green
- Bridgtown
- Norton Canes
- Huntington
- Cheslyn Hay
- Great Wyrley
- Rugeley
- Brereton
- Cannock Wood
- Littleworth
