Brighton · South East
Squeezed between the Downs and the sea, Brighton and Hove has more permit bays than spare driveways, which is why a dead car here is usually collected straight from the kerb.
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Start with the registration and the postcode where the car is.
The city is a narrow strip. The South Downs rise behind it, the Channel sits in front, and the A27 bypass runs along the top edge, meeting the A23 London road at the Patcham interchange. Inside that frame, streets climb steeply away from the seafront, and the Victorian terraces of Hanover, Kemptown and central Hove were built long before anyone needed to park a car outside.
That shapes how a car comes to the end of its life here. Brighton & Hove City Council ran 27 controlled parking zones in 2023 to 2024, so a car that has stopped working often stays in a paid resident’s bay, costing a permit for something nobody drives. Recycling it frees the space and ends the permit, and a non-runner can be loaded where it stands.
Brighton’s low emission zone applies to buses, not private cars. The council’s scheme was agreed with the bus operators, and taxis are outside it too, so there is no daily charge for driving an older petrol or diesel car into the centre.
Owners here tend to scrap for plainer reasons: salt air on a car parked near the front for years, a failed MOT on an older hatchback, or a car that no longer justifies its permit.
Your postcode decides which licensed buyer values the car, whether it is BN2 in Whitehawk, BN3 in Hangleton or BN41 in Portslade. Once you accept, a licensed waste carrier collects free and takes the car to an Authorised Treatment Facility. Fluids and the battery come out first, reusable parts are recovered, and the shell goes for metal recycling. The ATF then issues the Certificate of Destruction, which tells DVLA you are no longer the keeper.
Two universities, at Falmer and Moulsecoomb, mean some cars are left behind each summer. If a car has been left behind a shared house, only its registered keeper can arrange the scrapping, and having the V5C to hand makes the paperwork quickest.
Brighton at a glance
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How it works
Four stages take an unwanted car from your drive to a new life as recycled material. Here’s what happens at each one.
Enter the registration and the postcode where the car is parked. The details go to a licensed buyer who covers that area, and they come back with an offer.
Agree the offer and pick a day. The car is collected free of charge from a drive, a street, a car park or a garage, wherever it happens to be.
The car goes to an Authorised Treatment Facility, where fluids, the battery and hazardous parts are removed safely and the paperwork is completed.
Reusable parts are recovered, and the shell is shredded so the steel, aluminium and other materials can be made into something new.
Questions
Straight answers to what people ask before scrapping a car.
Can’t see your question? Read every answer or call 0800 058 8087.
No. Give the buyer the street and say which zone it is in. The driver works around the bay, and the car does not need to start or roll.
That is one for the council. Brighton & Hove City Council investigates abandoned vehicles on the public road; untaxed cars are reported to DVLA instead. Only the owner can arrange scrappage.
No. Collection is free wherever the car is in the UK, there are no admin or hidden fees, and turning down an offer costs nothing.
No. Since the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, scrap metal dealers in England and Wales can't pay cash for scrap vehicles. Payment is made by bank transfer or another traceable method.
Get an offer from a licensed local buyer in minutes, with free collection whenever suits you.