Ashton-in-Makerfield · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ashton-in-Makerfield workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ashton-in-Makerfield
Ashton-in-Makerfield is a market town of around 26,000 people in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, four miles south of Wigan itself, and a place whose name the trade has known for two centuries - this was the home of the hinge-makers. From the blacksmiths and locksmiths working out of their own houses around Heath Road to Thomas Crompton and Sons, whose hinge factory on Gerard Street once employed some 1,200 people and dominated the high street, Ashton made hinges, locks, files and nails for the world.
That metal-bashing instinct still runs through the town's engineering, food and logistics trades, much of it grouped in the industrial units on Park Industrial Estate off Liverpool Road and along Kilbuck Lane and the trading estates towards Haydock and the M6.
Every Ashton-in-Makerfield process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Park Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Ashton-in-Makerfield units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Ashton-in-Makerfield and the rest of Greater Manchester it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on lathes and machining centres, heir to the hinge, lock, file and nail trade that made Ashton's name and to the engineering shops that still work its industrial estates off Liverpool Road.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, food producers and cold-store and distribution operations clustered on the trading estates by Kilbuck Lane and towards Haydock, where names like Booker move food in bulk.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Ashton cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Park Industrial Estate and Kilbuck Lane units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ashton bodyshops close to the M6 junction. 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 the town's schools, colleges and technical workshops, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ashton-in-Makerfield
We are out under Ashton-in-Makerfield's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A welding bay in Ashton-in-Makerfield had its fume extraction pulling short of where it should, down to a poorly sealed duct joint. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the extraction arms, then sorted a slipping belt before re-checking. The LEV passed on re-test across the bench capture hoods, with a signed HSG258 report. The workshop manager booked a regular annual visit on the spot.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Ashton-in-Makerfield 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 Park Industrial Estate 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 Ashton-in-Makerfield line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and metalwork process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
On most Ashton-in-Makerfield sites - the Park Industrial Estate units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Ashton-in-Makerfield 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 Ashton-in-Makerfield duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Kilbuck Lane trading estates 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 precision engineering and metalwork bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Park Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Park Industrial Estate and Kilbuck Lane trading estates, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Park Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Ashton-in-Makerfield university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Ashton-in-Makerfield, but a Park Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Gerard Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Park Industrial Estate or a smaller Ashton-in-Makerfield workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Ashton-in-Makerfield 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.
Local knowledge
By the late eighteenth century the streets around Heath Road were full of blacksmiths and locksmiths making hinges, hardware and stock locks by hand in their own homes, and in 1866 Thomas Crompton founded the hinge-making firm that grew to employ around 1,200 people on Gerard Street. Ashton became famous for hinges, locks, files and nails, work that demanded control of the mist, fume and dust that grinding and finishing metal throws off. That precision instinct still runs through the town's machine shops and fabricators today, and every one of them carries a duty to control what its work puts into the air. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.