Folkestone · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Folkestone workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Folkestone
Folkestone is a Kent harbour town of around 52,000, the UK end of the Channel Tunnel, with a revived Harbour Arm and the Creative Quarter of its cobbled Old High Street.
The signature trade is rail and logistics - the Channel Tunnel rail and freight engineering, the cross-Channel logistics, and the creative-industry workshops - across the Shearway Business Park and Park Farm estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Folkestone process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Shearway Business Park units down to the smallest Folkestone workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Folkestone and across Kent it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, grinding and dust extraction across the rail-maintenance and freight-engineering units of the Channel Tunnel terminal, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the M20 distribution parks, where the maintenance bays need capture proven.
Weld-fume, solvent-vapour and wood-dust extraction across the creative-industry and maker workshops of the regenerated town, where fume and dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Shearway Business Park and Park Farm units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Folkestone 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 Royal Victoria Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Folkestone
We are out under Folkestone's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A rail-freight maintenance depot near Folkestone had a wheel-and-brake shop with the grinding-dust extraction on a lathe pulling weak because the collector hopper had filled solid. We emptied the hopper, checked the filter had recovered and measured the capture at the bench. It failed at first on the choked collector and passed once cleared, the extraction back at its design figure. The depot ran cross-Channel shuttle stock, so trackside protocols and full rail-spec PPE were observed.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Folkestone 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 Shearway 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 Folkestone line.
Where exposure is in question - a rail and cross-channel engineering 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 the great majority of Folkestone sites, from the Shearway Business Park units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Folkestone 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 Folkestone duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Park Farm 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 rail and cross-channel engineering bay, a logistics and distribution bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Shearway Business Park or a smaller Folkestone workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Rail and cross-Channel engineering, logistics and distribution, creative-industry workshops, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Shearway Business Park and Park Farm Industrial Estate and across the wider Kent.
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 Folkestone, but a Shearway Business Park fabrication shop and an Old High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Folkestone 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 Shearway Business Park and Park Farm Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Kent.
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 Shearway Business Park unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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