Removal & Decommissioning
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Britteco removes, cleans and decommissions commercial oil tanks in Cornwall, from dairy farms around Launceston and Bodmin to harbour businesses in Falmouth and Newlyn. Because our engineers travel from Banbury, every Cornish job is booked as a scheduled visit with the right kit already on board.
Oil is a bigger part of daily life in Cornwall than anywhere else in the South West. In the 2021 Census, 13.8% of Cornish households heated with oil alone, and Cornwall Council puts the number of homes off the gas grid at around 35,000. Businesses in the same villages and valleys run on kerosene and gas oil too, kept in bulk tanks that often sit in exposed spots.
The working economy here is varied. China clay is still worked around St Austell, Falmouth Docks repairs ships, and Cornwall ranks seventh among UK milk-producing counties. Add the fishing fleet at Newlyn, Newquay airport and a long list of holiday parks, and you have red diesel, heating oil and DERV stored at sites of every size.
Salt air and Atlantic weather are hard on metal. Steel tanks near the coast corrode faster, bund walls crack, and water finds its way in through tired fittings. Much of our Cornish work is dealing with that: draining a weeping tank, clearing water and sludge, or cutting up a tank that has reached the end of its life.
A Cornish visit only works if everything is settled before the crew leaves Banbury.
Listed in the order Cornish customers most often need them.
Run out of heating oil or diesel in Cornwall?
24/7 emergency heating oil, kerosene and diesel delivery from 100 litres, including nights, weekends and bank holidays.
Cornwall falls within the Environment Agency’s Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly area. With so much of the county close to the sea, a leaking tank on a farm or harbour can reach a stream or the shoreline quickly. The busy fishing and tourism economy makes clean water a commercial matter as well as an environmental one.
If your business stores more than 201 litres of oil, the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001 require secondary containment that holds at least 110% of the tank. Plenty of older single-skin tanks in Cornwall do not meet that standard. GPP2 guidance sets out sensible distances from drains, watercourses and the coast.
We give you written proof of every job. Fuel and sludge leave under a Waste Transfer or Consignment Note, and removed or made-safe tanks are covered by a Certificate of Disposal or degassing certificate.
Scheduled visits reach every part of the county.
We book Cornish work as a scheduled visit rather than a same-day call-out. Send photos and details and we will offer the earliest date we can commit to, then bring everything needed to finish in one visit. If a site runs dry, diesel or heating oil can be delivered round the clock.
Sometimes. An inspection and ultrasonic thickness test will show how much sound steel is left. If the wall is too thin or the bund has failed, removal and a new bunded tank is the safer route.
Usually, yes. We plan the vehicle and hose length from your photos, and a tank that will not come out whole can be cold cut on site into manageable sections.
Yes. A holiday park is a business, so any oil store over 201 litres needs containment holding at least 110% of the tank. That includes fuel for boilers, generators and site vehicles.
Our focus is commercial work, but we can help homeowners in Cornwall with domestic tank replacement and installation. Our home heating oil tank page explains the process and the paperwork.
Devon is Cornwall’s only neighbour, and we cover Somerset as well.
Send photos and the postcode of your tank, and we will fix a date to clean, remove or replace it in one visit.
