Evesham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Evesham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Evesham
Evesham, in Worcestershire, is a market town of around 27,700 at the heart of the Vale of Evesham market-gardening heartland, ringed by the River Avon where the decisive Battle of Evesham was fought in 1265.
The signature trade is produce and food - the fresh-produce packing and cold storage, the salad and vegetable processing, and the chilled food manufacturing and light engineering - across the Vale Park and Vale Business Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Evesham 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 Vale Park units to the smaller Evesham workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Evesham employers and others across Worcestershire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Refrigeration-plant, forklift-exhaust and pack-house extraction across the refrigerated depots and collation halls of the Vale, a defining trade of the market-gardening heartland, where the plant rooms and charging bays need capture at source.
Wash-down mist, glasshouse-boiler fume and grading-line extraction across the salad and vegetable packing units, where the process moisture and boiler fume need capture proven.
Cooking-fume, cook-chill steam and weld-fume extraction across the chilled-food and precision-engineering units, where the cooklines and machining benches each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Vale Park and Vale 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 Evesham 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 the Evesham Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Evesham
We are out under Evesham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A fresh-produce packing plant in Evesham had a refrigeration-plant and pack-house extraction over a chilled grading line pulling weak, letting condensate and cleaning-chemical vapour build in the hall. We measured the capture across the line and checked the ducting and fan for losses. It failed on the low capture, and we specified the remedial work. The hall ran chilled with regular wash-down, so the humidity load on the ductwork was logged alongside the airflow.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For an Evesham 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 Vale 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 Evesham line.
Where exposure is in question - a fresh-produce packing and cold storage 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 Evesham sites - the Vale Park 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 Evesham 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 Evesham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Vale 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 fresh-produce packing and cold storage bay, a salad and vegetable processing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Fresh-produce packing and cold storage, salad and vegetable processing, chilled food manufacturing and engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Vale Park and Vale Business Park and across the wider Worcestershire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Evesham 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. 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 Vale Park unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Vale Park and Vale Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Worcestershire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Vale Park units, term-time access at the Evesham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Vale Park or a smaller Evesham workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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