Camberley · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Camberley workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Camberley
Camberley is a Surrey town of some 30,000 people on the Hampshire border, grown from open heathland to serve the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and the Staff College that made it the intellectual heart of the British Army. Its very name was minted by the Post Office in 1877, when the old settlement of Cambridge Town was renamed to stop letters going astray to Cambridge.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the technology and defence sector, much of it grouped in the units at Watchmoor Park and the Yorktown Industrial Estate off Doman Road, with Siemens' UK headquarters close by.
Every Camberley 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 Watchmoor Park plant to the single-bench Camberley 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 Camberley and the rest of Surrey it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and lathes, from the long-established engineering shops on the Yorktown Industrial Estate off Doman Road to the technology and defence suppliers that grew up around Siemens and BAE Systems.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Camberley's bakeries and food plants, from Bridor's French patisserie unit on Doman Road to the Krispy Kreme UK bakery at nearby Frimley.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Camberley cabinet shops and joinery works on the Yorktown and Watchmoor estates, 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 Yorktown Industrial Estate and Watchmoor Point units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Camberley 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 the pathology labs at Frimley Park Hospital and the technical and training facilities around the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Camberley
We are out under Camberley's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A high-street pharmacy in Camberley had capture velocity at some of its fume cupboards dropping below benchmark, traced to a poorly sealed duct joint. We checked static pressure, cleared a blocked filter and re-tested each point against benchmark. One cupboard failed at first on a leaking connection and passed after remedial work, leaving a thorough examination and test certificate. We worked the early mornings before the technicians arrived to keep things running.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Camberley system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Watchmoor 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 Camberley 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 the great majority of Camberley sites, from the Watchmoor Park 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 Camberley 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 Camberley duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Yorktown 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 Watchmoor Park and Yorktown Industrial Estate and across the wider Surrey.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Camberley 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.
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 Watchmoor Park or a smaller Camberley workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Watchmoor Park unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Watchmoor Park units, term-time access at the Camberley 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 Camberley, but a Watchmoor Park fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Local knowledge
Camberley barely existed until the Royal Military College opened on the heath in 1812, and the town that grew up around it turned in time to engineering and technology rather than soldiering alone. Siemens moved its UK headquarters here in 2007, and the machine shops of the Yorktown Industrial Estate and Watchmoor Park have cut and finished metal for decades. Every one of them carries a duty to control the oil 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.
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