Fleet · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Fleet workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Fleet
Fleet is the main town of Hart, the north-east corner of Hampshire that has been voted the best place to live in the UK more times than anywhere else in the country. An affluent commuter town of around 44,000 people on the M3 corridor, it grew from heathland into a town only after the London and South Western Railway opened its line through here in 1840 and wealthy Londoners began building country homes beside Fleet Pond.
Its working economy today runs on the office, technology and light-engineering units of the M3-corridor business parks, grouped at Ancells Business Park by Ancells Farm and along Fleet Road at Waterfront Business Park, home to national employers such as the recruitment firm CV-Library.
Each of those Fleet 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 Ancells Business Park units to the one-bench Fleet workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Fleet and across Hampshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and toolrooms in the light-industrial units off Fleet Road and around Ancells Farm, where the M3-corridor economy still turns out precision parts.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, kitchens and food units that supply Fleet's town-centre cafes and the staff messes of the Ancells and Waterfront business parks.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Fleet cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it can reach the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Fleet Business Park and Waterfront units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Fleet and Church Crookham 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 technology and testing firms on Ancells Business Park, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Fleet
We are out under Fleet's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A traditional furniture workshop in Fleet had its wood-dust extraction hoods under-performing against benchmark, with debris built up in the ducting. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with the tired filter. One point failed at first on a slipping belt and passed after remedial work, and we left the readings and a report for the file. The workshop manager kept us going with a steady supply of brews through the morning.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Fleet 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 Ancells 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 a Fleet 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.
Across most Fleet sites - the Ancells Business 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 Fleet 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 Fleet duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Waterfront 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.
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 Ancells Business Park and Waterfront Business Park and across the wider Hampshire.
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 Ancells Business Park or a smaller Fleet 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 an Ancells Business Park unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Fleet 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Ancells Business Park and Waterfront Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Ancells Business Park units, term-time access at the Fleet university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Apart from the Farnham to Reading road, the land here stayed open heath until the London and South Western Railway drove its main line through in 1840 and a town began to gather around the new station. That commuter line still defines Fleet, and its modern working economy sits in the office and light-engineering units of the M3-corridor business parks at Ancells Farm and Waterfront. Every machine shop, fabrication bay and toolroom among them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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