Biddulph · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Biddulph workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Biddulph
Biddulph is a Staffordshire Moorlands town of around 20,000 people, sitting north of Stoke-on-Trent where the Cheshire plain climbs into the western edge of the Peak District. It is best known for Biddulph Grange Garden, the extraordinary Victorian world garden laid out by James Bateman with its Egyptian court, Chinese temple and Himalayan glen, now cared for by the National Trust.
Its working economy grew out of coal and iron and still runs on engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Victoria Business Park on the old colliery ground and at Brown Lees Industrial Estate at Knypersley.
Every Biddulph 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 Victoria Business Park plant to the single-bench Biddulph 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 Biddulph and the rest of Staffordshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machines and grinders across the units at Victoria Business Park, built on the ground where Robert Heath and Sons once ran blast furnaces and rolling mills in the Biddulph Valley.
Steam canopies, flour-dust control and cold-store hygiene in the bakeries, butchers and food units that supply Biddulph's shops and the wider Moorlands trade.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Biddulph 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 Victoria Business Park and Brown Lees units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Biddulph bodyshops and MOT and repair units. 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 school and college science rooms such as Biddulph High School, and for the small labs and workshops around the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Biddulph
We are out under Biddulph's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A popular Biddulph MOT garage had lost capture velocity on several of the weld-fume arms, and a partly clogged filter on the unit was part of the story. We ran a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, running smoke visualisation and checking the filter. Once done, the LEV passed on re-test across the tailpipe extraction reels and the report changed hands on completion. We also gave the supervisor a few pointers on keeping the arms clear between visits.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Biddulph system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Victoria Business 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 a Biddulph line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For most Biddulph sites - from the Victoria Business Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Biddulph 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 Biddulph duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Brown Lees Industrial Estate 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 manufacturing 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.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Victoria Business Park and Brown Lees Industrial Estate and across the wider Staffordshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Biddulph 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.
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 Victoria Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Biddulph, but a Victoria Business Park fabrication shop and a Well Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Victoria Business Park and Brown Lees Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Staffordshire.
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 Victoria Business Park or a smaller Biddulph workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
In 1857 the industrialist Robert Heath brought large-scale mining to the valley, founding the Biddulph Valley Coal and Iron Works, later Victoria Colliery, and at its peak his empire ran blast furnaces, puddling furnaces and rolling mills employing thousands. That engineering instinct still runs through Biddulph's machine shops and fabrication units, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures. It is the same discipline the old furnace men lacked, applied to the modern shop floor.
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