Congleton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Congleton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Congleton
Congleton is a Cheshire market town of around 27,000 people on the River Dane, known the length of the county as 'Beartown' - the nickname it earned from the legend that the townsfolk once spent money set aside for a new Bible on a bear for the wakes-week baiting. It grew rich on silk, and its story since has run from throwing mills to some of the most advanced electronics manufacturing in Britain.
Its working economy today turns on precision engineering, aerospace and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Radnor Park Industrial Estate and Congleton Business Park.
Every one of those Congleton processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Radnor Park Industrial Estate units to the smaller Congleton workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Congleton and the wider Cheshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Coolant-mist and oil-mist extraction on the machining lines that feed Congleton manufacturing, led by the Siemens plant that has built variable-speed drives in the town since 1990 and now turns out well over a million a year within the same walls.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the town's bakeries and food units, from craft producers to the catering kitchens that supply Congleton's pubs, cafes and events.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Congleton 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 Radnor Park and Congleton Business Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Congleton 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 laboratories and materials-test benches behind Congleton engineering and aerospace firms such as Senior Aerospace Bird Bellows on Radnor Park, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Congleton
We are out under Congleton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Face velocity across the exhaust extraction points at a long-established vehicle workshop in Congleton was reading low, traced to a poorly sealed duct joint. We ran velocity and smoke tests across each point, sorted a blocked filter and re-checked. One point failed on a slipping belt initially and passed after remedial work, with a signed HSG258 report to follow. We timed the visit for half-term while the shop was quiet.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Congleton 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 Radnor Park 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 Congleton 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
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
On most Congleton sites - the Radnor Park Industrial Estate units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Congleton 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 Congleton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Congleton 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 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.
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 Congleton, but a Radnor Park Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Lawton Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Radnor Park 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.
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 Radnor Park Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Radnor Park Industrial Estate and Congleton Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cheshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Congleton 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Radnor Park Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Congleton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Siemens has manufactured at Congleton since 1971, and from 1990 its factory here has turned out variable-speed drives - the electronics that govern how motors run - climbing from around 50,000 a year to well over a million within the same footprint. That precision-manufacturing instinct still runs through the town's engineering and aerospace shops, from CNC machining to the metallic bellows and pressure-duct work at Senior Aerospace Bird Bellows. 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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