There are a number of official regulations regarding the use and storage of skips, for local people. Each council tends to address their own set of additional rules depending upon the area where the skip is to be leased to. Here are the official guidelines for skip hiring.

Each skip shall be clearly and indelibly marked with the owner’s name and with his telephone number or address.

Each skip shall be deposited on the highway unless authorised by an officer of the council and shall be positioned so that its longer sides are parallel to the edge of the highway and as near to the edge of the highway as is reasonably practicable, and so that it does not impede the surface water drainage of the highway nor obstruct access to any manhole or the apparatus of any statutory undertaker or Salford City Council.

Where more than one skip is on the highway at any one time, the skips shall be positioned as closely as possible to each other, but not so as to obstruct access to any premises unless the consent of the occupier of those premises has been obtained.

Each skip shall not exceed 5 metres in length by 2 metres in width.

Each skip or group of skips shall while on the highway be marked, guarded and lit in accordance with the following requirements:

• At night (that is to say, between half-an-hour after sunset and half-an-hour before sunrise):
• A road danger lamp shall be placed against or attached to each corner of the skip or the end corners of the row of skips where two or more skips are deposited in a row and the distance between adjacent skips does not exceed 2 metres, and shall also be placed between each cone and the next. See figure below.
• Each skip shall be guarded by at least 3 traffic cones placed on the highway in an oblique line on the approach side of the skip. Where 2 or more skips are deposited in a row, so that the distance between adjacent skips does not exceed 2 metres, the row shall be guarded as if it were one skip. See figure below.

Fly tipping is also associated with skip use and has laws against it too. Quite simply, fly-tipping is 'the illegal deposit of any waste onto land, i.e. waste dumped on a site with no license to accept waste'. Rubbish that has been fly-tipped tends to consist of large, bulky waste items that are dumped illegally instead of being disposed of properly at a licensed regulated landfill.

It is law that all waste in the UK is disposed of correctly. Only companies or individuals that hold a Waste Management License can recover, transport, deposit or dispose of waste. The waste must then be deposited at an official authorised site.

Fly-tipping waste is committing a serious offence because:

• Uncontrolled disposal of waste is hazardous to the general public, in particular when the rubbish contains items such as syringes, asbestos or containers of toxic materials.
• Damage to the environment. Such as damage to watercourses, and underlying soil quality.
• Fly-tipping can affect your whole neigbourhood. Piles of waste and rubbish looks unsightly and can harm investment into your area.
• It costs us all money. Cleaning up fly-tipping is expensive and wastes lot's of the taxpayers money.