Ellesmere Port · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ellesmere Port workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ellesmere Port
Ellesmere Port is a Cheshire town of around 65,000 on the Manchester Ship Canal, home to the Stanlow oil refinery, the Stellantis electric-van plant and the largest designer outlet in the UK at Cheshire Oaks.
The signature work is heavy industry - the vehicle assembly and paint of the electric-van plant, the oil refining and petrochemicals of Stanlow, and the fabrication and logistics - across the Rossmore Business Park and North Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Ellesmere Port 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 Rossmore Business Park units to the one-bench Ellesmere Port workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Ellesmere Port and the wider Cheshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Spray-booth, prep-bay and weld-fume extraction across the vehicle-assembly and paint lines of the electric-van plant, where booth airflow and coating vapour need capture at source.
Vapour, mist and process-fume extraction across the refining and petrochemical plant at Stanlow, where process vapour needs capture proven under permit.
Vapour, dust and weld-fume extraction across the chemical and fabrication units, where process fume and metal dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Rossmore Business Park and North Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ellesmere Port 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 local college and Ellesmere Port Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ellesmere Port
We are out under Ellesmere Port's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A vehicle-assembly paint shop in Ellesmere Port had a spray-booth extraction failing its airflow check because the exhaust filters were blinded with overspray and the make-up air was starved. We measured the booth face velocity and the filter differential and checked the cross-draught. It failed on the low airflow from the blinded filters, so the booth could not hold clean spraying conditions until they were changed. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, so air-fed breathing protection and full booth lockout were in place for the test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Ellesmere Port 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 Rossmore Business 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 an Ellesmere Port line.
Where exposure is in question - a vehicle assembly and paint 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 most Ellesmere Port sites - from the Rossmore Business Park 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 Ellesmere Port 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 Ellesmere Port duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the North Road 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 vehicle assembly and paint bay, an oil refining and petrochemicals 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 an Ellesmere Port 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 Rossmore Business Park or a smaller Ellesmere Port 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 Rossmore Business Park unit will ask to see.
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 Ellesmere Port, but a Rossmore Business Park fabrication shop and a Whitby Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Vehicle assembly and paint, oil refining and petrochemicals, chemicals and fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Rossmore Business Park and North Road Industrial Estate and across the wider Cheshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Rossmore Business Park units, term-time access at the Ellesmere Port university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.