Chichester · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Chichester workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Chichester
Chichester is the only city in West Sussex, a Roman-walled cathedral city of around 26,000 people laid out on the four streets - North, South, East and West - that still meet at the fifteenth-century Market Cross. Its Norman cathedral carries the only spire on a medieval English cathedral that can be seen from the sea, a landmark for sailors crossing Chichester Harbour for centuries.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food and drink and the fabrication trades, from the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars plant on the Goodwood estate to the industrial units grouped along Terminus Road and Quarry Lane close to the A27.
Wherever a Chichester process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Terminus Road Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Chichester workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Chichester employers and others across West Sussex it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, from the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars plant at Goodwood - opened in 2003 - to the precision shops feeding the engineering cluster along Terminus Road.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Chichester's bakeries and food factories, including the Terminus Road site that carried on Shippam's paste and canning trade and the Babynov organic baby-food plant that followed it.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Chichester 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 Terminus Road and Quarry 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 Chichester 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 University of Chichester, Chichester College and St Richard's Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Chichester
We are out under Chichester's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
The oil-mist extraction on the lathe at a Chichester engineering shop wasn't pulling as it should, which came down to a leaking flexible connection. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with a blocked filter. One point failed at first on a loose joint and passed once that was remedied, leaving them with a thorough examination and test certificate. We ran the job over the school holidays while the workshop was quiet.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Chichester 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 Terminus Road 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 Chichester 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.
Across most Chichester sites - the Terminus Road Industrial Estate plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Chichester 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 Chichester duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Quarry Lane 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 Terminus Road Industrial Estate and Quarry Lane and across the wider West Sussex.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Chichester 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 Terminus Road Industrial Estate or a smaller Chichester workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Terminus Road 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.
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 Chichester, but a Terminus Road Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a North Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Terminus Road Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
In 2003 Rolls-Royce Motor Cars opened its plant on the Goodwood estate just outside Chichester, a Nicholas Grimshaw building where every car is still hand-assembled today. That precision-engineering instinct runs through the city's machine shops and component suppliers, 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.
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