Bishop Auckland · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bishop Auckland workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bishop Auckland
Bishop Auckland is a former County Durham coal town of around 25,000, the historic seat of the Prince Bishops of Durham, its skyline crowned by Auckland Castle and the Auckland Project's Kynren live show.
The signature trade is engineering and visitor economy - the fabrication and advanced manufacturing, the food manufacturing, and the logistics and hospitality of the Auckland Project - across the St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate and South Church Enterprise Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Bishop Auckland 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 St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Bishop Auckland workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Bishop Auckland and the rest of County Durham it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and process-dust extraction across the fabrication and machine shops, now the town's largest employment sector, where metal fume and dust need capture at source.
Oven-fume, steam and cooking-vapour extraction across the food and packaging lines of the enterprise parks, where the cooking lines and process areas need capture proven.
Battery-charging, forklift-exhaust and canopy-grease extraction across the distribution units and the hotel and restaurant kitchens serving the Auckland Project, where the loading bays and cooklines each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate and South Church units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bishop Auckland 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 Bishop Auckland College and Bishop Auckland Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bishop Auckland
We are out under Bishop Auckland's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A metal-fabrication unit on a Bishop Auckland enterprise park had a weld-fume extraction arm on a fabrication bay drooping short of the work because its internal spine had cracked. We clamped the arm to hold position, measured the capture at the tip and logged the mechanical fault. It passed on the airflow but failed on the arm's positioning integrity, so the hood could not be held over the weld. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the arm.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Bishop Auckland 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 St Helen Auckland 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 a Bishop Auckland line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and advanced manufacturing 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.
For the great majority of Bishop Auckland sites, from the St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate 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 Bishop Auckland 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 Bishop Auckland duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the South Church Enterprise Park 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. An engineering and advanced manufacturing bay, a food manufacturing 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 Bishop Auckland 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.
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 St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate and South Church Enterprise Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider County Durham.
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 Bishop Auckland, but a St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Newgate Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Engineering and advanced manufacturing, food manufacturing, logistics and visitor economy, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate and South Church Enterprise Park and across the wider County Durham.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the St Helen Auckland Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Bishop Auckland university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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