Fleetwood · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Fleetwood workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Fleetwood
Fleetwood sits at the tip of the Fylde peninsula where the River Wyre meets the Irish Sea, a rare planned Victorian town laid out in the 1830s by landowner Sir Peter Hesketh-Fleetwood and designed by the architect Decimus Burton. It grew into one of the great deep-sea fishing ports of England, at its height the third-largest in the country, and it is still the home town of the Fisherman's Friend lozenge, made here since 1865.
Its working economy now runs on food production, engineering and the marine and fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units around Copse Road and Jameson Road and along the estuary by the fish docks.
Each of those Fleetwood 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 Copse Road industrial estate units to the one-bench Fleetwood 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 Fleetwood and the wider Lancashire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on lathes and machining centres in the Copse Road and Jameson Road units, and in the marine and dock engineering shops that keep the inshore fleet and the port working.
Steam canopies and dust control in the town's food and confectionery plants, from the Lofthouse of Fleetwood factory that makes billions of Fisherman's Friend lozenges a year to the fish processors and cold stores along the dock.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Fleetwood joinery and cabinet shops, 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 Copse Road and Jameson Road industrial units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Fleetwood 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 town and the wider Fylde coast, including the chemical and fluoropolymer works on the Hillhouse site at nearby Thornton, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Fleetwood
We are out under Fleetwood's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Face velocity across the bench extract nozzles at a town-centre dental laboratory in Fleetwood was reading low, traced to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the dust extraction hoods, sorted a tired filter and re-checked. The system met control standards once the debris in the ducting was cleared, with full test documentation issued. We scheduled the visit for a Sunday while the laboratory was closed.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Fleetwood system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Copse Road 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 Fleetwood line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and marine trades 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.
On most Fleetwood sites - the Copse Road 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 Fleetwood 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 Fleetwood duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Jameson 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 precision engineering and marine trades 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 marine trades, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Copse Road industrial estate and Jameson Road industrial estate and across the wider Lancashire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Copse Road industrial estate units, term-time access at the Fleetwood university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Copse Road industrial estate and Jameson Road industrial estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
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 Fleetwood, but a Copse Road industrial estate fabrication shop and a Lord Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Copse Road industrial estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Fleetwood 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.
Local knowledge
Fleetwood built its fortune on the sea: the Wyre Dock opened in 1877, the first steam trawler sailed in 1891, and by the 1920s the port employed more than nine thousand people and ranked among the three biggest fishing ports in England. The Cod Wars of the late 1960s and 1970s closed the North Atlantic grounds the town's trawlers depended on, and the last deep-sea boat left in 1982, but the marine engineering and fabrication instinct never left. Every shop that machines, welds or fabricates 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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