I have a problem right now which is that I have been wanting to replace my old air conditioner for quite some time now which is probably over ten years old. As far as I know in the UK you can't remove the refrigerant yourself as it can be harmful to the environment. Are there any certified specialists in Maidstone who do this?
When you installed your old air conditioner, did you also contact any company? Did you check if they are still working, maybe they also provide air conditioning degas service? I contacted AC 4 Homes for professional air conditioning installation (https://ac4homes.co.uk/ac-degas-and-refrigerant-reclaim/) and they told me that if I want to replace the air conditioner, I definitely can't do it myself, for the same reason you wrote. They said that I can contact them and their specialists, who are certified, can remove the refrigerant from the air conditioner so that everything is legal, so you can contact them.