Colne · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Colne workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Colne
Colne is a Lancashire mill town at the eastern edge of the county, perched on a ridge below the Pennines in the Borough of Pendle, three miles northeast of Nelson and six from Burnley. It is the birthplace of Wallace Hartley, the bandmaster who led the Titanic's orchestra as the ship went down, and every August it fills with music for the Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival centred on the Town Hall on Albert Road.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Whitewalls Industrial Estate beside junction 14 of the M65 and the newer sheds at North Valley Business Park.
Every Colne 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 Whitewalls Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Colne 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 Colne and the rest of Lancashire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres across the Whitewalls precision shops, part of the east Lancashire aerospace supply chain that feeds the Rolls-Royce wide chord fan-blade plant at nearby Barnoldswick.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food producers around Whitewalls and North Valley, where airborne dust and vapour are captured before they settle on lines and lungs.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Colne cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the tool before it reaches the operator.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Whitewalls and North Valley units. Since the HSE reclassification in 2019, all welding fume, mild steel included, is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Colne bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, the leading cause of occupational asthma, so booth airflow is examined against its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Nelson and Colne College and the town s technical workshops, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Colne
We are out under Colne's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A family-run Colne welding bay had lost capture velocity at several bench extract arms, with a filter long overdue for replacement. We carried out a full thorough examination and test, taking velocity readings, running smoke visualisation and checking the filter. Once the ducting was cleared every point passed on re-test, and a full LEV report went into the COSHH file. The supervisor booked a standing three-monthly visit while we were on site.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Colne 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 Whitewalls 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 Colne line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and aerospace 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 most Colne sites - from the Whitewalls Industrial Estate 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 Colne 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 Colne duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the North Valley Business 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. A precision engineering and aerospace 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.
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 Colne, but a Whitewalls Industrial Estate fabrication shop and an Albert Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Whitewalls Industrial Estate or a smaller Colne workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Whitewalls Industrial Estate and North Valley Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
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 Whitewalls 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.
precision engineering and aerospace, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Whitewalls Industrial Estate and North Valley Business Park and across the wider Lancashire.
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 Whitewalls Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
Colne grew rich on cotton weaving, and when the looms fell silent its workshops turned to metal, so that today its precision-engineering shops sit within reach of the Rolls-Royce fan-blade plant at Barnoldswick and the wider east Lancashire aerospace cluster. Those trades throw off oil mist, coolant mist and fume, and every shop that runs them carries a duty to control what its work puts into the air. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation against its design figures, so the extraction reads true. The units at Whitewalls and North Valley are exactly where that duty bites hardest.
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