Bicester · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bicester workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bicester
Bicester is an Oxfordshire garden town of around 37,000, one of the fastest-growing in the UK, home to Bicester Village and to the historic-motorsport cluster of Bicester Motion.
The signature trade is motorsport and logistics - the classic-car restoration and motorsport engineering of Bicester Motion, the M40 distribution, and the advanced manufacturing - across the Telford Road and Murdock Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Bicester processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Telford Road units to the one-bench Bicester workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Bicester employers and others across Oxfordshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Spray-booth, weld-fume and grinding extraction across the motorsport and classic-car restoration units of the Bicester Motion cluster, where paint booths and welding bays need capture at source.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the M40 distribution parks, where the maintenance bays need capture proven.
Machining, solder-fume and coating extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and low-carbon-tech units, where dust, fume and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Telford Road and Murdock Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bicester 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 Banbury and Bicester College and the Horton General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bicester
We are out under Bicester's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A classic-car restoration workshop at the Bicester Motion cluster had a spray-booth and welding-fume extraction failing its airflow check because the booth exhaust filters were blinded with overspray. We measured the booth face velocity and the filter differential and checked the weld-bay arm alongside. It failed on the low booth airflow from the blinded filters, so clean spraying conditions could not be held until they were changed. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, so air-fed breathing protection and full booth lockout were in place.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Bicester 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 Telford Road 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 a Bicester line.
Where exposure is in question - a motorsport and classic-car restoration process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For the great majority of Bicester sites, from the Telford Road units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Bicester 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 Bicester duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Murdock Road 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 motorsport and classic-car restoration bay, a logistics and distribution bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Bicester 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.
Motorsport and classic-car restoration, logistics and distribution, advanced manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Telford Road and Murdock Road and across the wider Oxfordshire.
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 Telford Road or a smaller Bicester workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Telford Road units, term-time access at the Bicester 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 Telford Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a Telford Road unit will ask to see.
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