Removal & Decommissioning
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Britteco inspects, replaces and removes heating oil, red diesel and gas oil tanks for dairy farms, estates, factories and depots in Cheshire, from Chester and Ellesmere Port to Crewe, Nantwich and Macclesfield. The county is covered by our northern team, who work from the Harrogate base.
Two very different economies share the county. On the Manchester Ship Canal near the Mersey stands Stanlow at Ellesmere Port, the UK’s second-largest refinery and the source of about a sixth of the country’s petrol, with a jet fuel pipeline to Manchester Airport. Nearby, the Ellesmere Port vehicle plant opened in 1962 and now builds electric vans, and chlor-alkali chemistry carries on at Runcorn. Contractors and maintenance yards in this belt use diesel and gas oil in volume.
South and east, the Cheshire Plain is grass country where dairy farming has long dominated and farmland covers about 70% of the county. In 2021, 4.3% of Cheshire East households and 3.6% in Cheshire West and Chester heated only with oil, mostly farmhouses, estate cottages and villages around Nantwich, Congleton, Knutsford and Macclesfield. Tractors and contractors’ machinery add red diesel to the kerosene.
Public and industrial sites keep their own fuel too. Bentley has built cars at Pyms Lane in Crewe since 1946, and Leighton Hospital in Crewe relies on standby generators. Rock salt from the mine at Winsford grits public roads every winter, and the council highway depots that spread it also store diesel for gritters and loaders. Haulage yards, plant hire depots and petrol stations make up the rest.
In Cheshire most enquiries are about whether an ageing tank can stay, so this is the order we work in.
Inspection and replacement come first here, followed by the jobs that industry and farms need.
Run out of heating oil or diesel in Cheshire?
24/7 emergency heating oil, kerosene and diesel delivery from 100 litres, including nights, weekends and bank holidays.
Cheshire is covered by the Environment Agency’s Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire area. Much of the county sits on the Sherwood Sandstone, a porous rock that the British Geological Survey calls a very important aquifer providing large quantities of drinking water. Oil soaking into the ground from a split tank can travel down into it.
The Weaver and the Dane can rise quickly. During Storm Christoph in January 2021, some 195 properties in Cheshire West and Chester flooded inside, including 47 in Northwich, almost all of them businesses, while Winsford and the villages around Acton Bridge and Weaverham were also hit. Tanks on low ground beside these rivers need firm anchoring, a dry bund and vents set above flood level.
Commercial oil stores above 201 litres must meet the 2001 regulations for England, with a 110% bund and protected fill points, sight gauges and valves; farms storing fuel follow agricultural rules built on the same idea. After an inspection we leave a written survey, and after removal or decommissioning, waste notes plus a certificate of disposal or degassing.
These are some of the Cheshire towns we serve, along with the farms and villages between them.
Yes. Our engineers carry out fuel tank inspection across Cheshire, from Chester and Ellesmere Port to Crewe and Macclesfield. We check the tank, bund, pipework and alarms, take ultrasonic readings on steel and give you a written oil tank survey.
Farm fuel has its own agricultural storage rules, built on the same logic as the business regulations: a sound tank, secondary containment and protected fittings kept away from drains and watercourses. An inspection shows whether your tanks comply.
We do, for farms, businesses and estates. The tank is drained, any reusable oil is saved, then the shell is cut down and sent for recycling, and you get a certificate of disposal for your records.
It depends on the number of tanks, their size, whether ultrasonic testing is needed and what the site access is like. We don’t list prices online; send the details and we will give you a fixed figure before booking.
Yes, alongside our commercial work. Our page on home heating oil tank replacement explains how a domestic swap is organised.
Neighbouring counties are covered by the same teams.
Tell us the tank size, what it holds and where it is, and we will arrange an inspection. If replacement is due, we quote for the new tank and removal of the old one together.
