Ashford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ashford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ashford
Ashford is a Kent town of around 83,000 on the River Great Stour, a major distribution hub on the M20 and High Speed 1 with a long railway-works heritage.
The work is logistics and engineering - the distribution and warehousing of the M20 and Sevington corridor, the engineering and food manufacturing, and the rail-works heritage trades - across the Waterbrook Park and Cobbs Wood estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Ashford processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Waterbrook Park units to the smaller Ashford workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Ashford and the wider Kent it is your evidence under COSHH.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the Sevington and M20 distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Waterbrook Park and Cobbs Wood units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ashford bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Ashford College and the William Harvey Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ashford
We are out under Ashford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A plastic extrusion plant in Ashford had the VOC extraction canopy over an extrusion head throwing false failure alarms to the control room from an out-of-calibration differential-pressure sensor. We measured the actual duct static pressure with a digital reference manometer and recalibrated the local pressure switch. It failed on instrumentation accuracy, though the physical airflow was fully compliant and capturing the fume. The molten-PVC smell meant organic-vapour cartridges and working clear of the hot extrusion dies.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Ashford system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Waterbrook Park units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on an Ashford line.
Where exposure is in question - a logistics and distribution process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Ashford sites - the Waterbrook Park plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Ashford site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Ashford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Cobbs Wood floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A logistics and distribution bay, an engineering and manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Logistics and distribution, engineering and manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Waterbrook Park and Cobbs Wood and across the wider Kent.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at Waterbrook Park or a smaller Ashford workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Ashford workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Ashford, but a Waterbrook Park fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Waterbrook Park units, term-time access at the Ashford university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You do the work and we re-test, and on a Waterbrook Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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