Great Yarmouth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Great Yarmouth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Great Yarmouth
Great Yarmouth is England's leading offshore-energy town on the Norfolk coast, a borough of around 99,000, once the world's greatest herring port and now a Southern North Sea oil, gas and offshore-wind hub.
The signature trade is offshore energy - the oil, gas and offshore-wind support of the port, the offshore fabrication and engineering, and the marine and fish processing - across the South Denes and Harfreys estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Great Yarmouth 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 South Denes units to the smaller Great Yarmouth 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 Great Yarmouth employers and others across Norfolk it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, coating-vapour and dust extraction across the oil, gas and offshore-wind support units of the port, the defining trade of the town, where fume and vapour need capture at source.
Grinding, weld-fume and paint extraction across the offshore-fabrication and engineering units building the wind-farm structures, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Steam, smoke and mist extraction across the marine and fish-processing trades, where organic dust and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the South Denes and Harfreys units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Great Yarmouth 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 East Coast College and the James Paget University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Great Yarmouth
We are out under Great Yarmouth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An offshore-fabrication yard in Great Yarmouth had a weld-fume extraction arm on a heavy-plate bay pulling weak because the flexible ducting had split along a seam. We taped off the split to test, measured the capture at the torch and logged the damage. It failed on the split ducting and the lost capture, and we specified the replacement hose length. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, the on-torch capture was checked against the fabricators working the offshore-wind jackets.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Great Yarmouth 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 South Denes 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 Great Yarmouth line.
Where exposure is in question - an offshore energy 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 Great Yarmouth sites - the South Denes 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 Great Yarmouth 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 Great Yarmouth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Harfreys 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. An offshore energy bay, an offshore fabrication and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the South Denes units, term-time access at the Great Yarmouth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around South Denes and Harfreys Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Norfolk.
Offshore energy, offshore fabrication and engineering, marine and fish processing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around South Denes and Harfreys Industrial Estate and across the wider Norfolk.
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 South Denes unit will ask to see.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You do the work and we re-test, and on a South Denes production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 South Denes or a smaller Great Yarmouth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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