Guisborough · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Guisborough workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Guisborough
Guisborough is the historic gateway to the North York Moors, a market town of around 17,000 people at the foot of the Cleveland Hills, its skyline still framed by the ruined east-end arch of Gisborough Priory.
Its working economy runs through the light-industrial and workshop units of Cleveland Gate Business Park off Rectory Lane and the newer Waterfall Business Centre on the Gisborough Estate - home to engineering and machine shops, a brewery, bakeries, vehicle trades and food producers.
Each of those Guisborough 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 Cleveland Gate Business Park units to the one-bench Guisborough 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 Guisborough and across North Yorkshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
CNC mills, lathes and grinding stations at Guisborough machine shops throw metalworking-fluid mist and swarf; local exhaust ventilation captures it at the tool before it reaches the operator's breathing zone.
Flour-dust extraction at the Cleveland Gate bakeries and vessel and cellar ventilation at Guisborough Brewery - flour is among the commonest causes of occupational asthma, so dough-room capture is tested to its face velocity.
Wood-dust extraction on saws, sanders and routers at the town's joinery units; hardwood dust is a recognised carcinogen, so LEV is checked to keep airborne levels below the workplace exposure limit.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Cleveland Gate Business Park and Waterfall Business Centre units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Guisborough 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 Prior Pursglove College and James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Guisborough
We are out under Guisborough's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pharmacy compounding room in Guisborough had the capture velocity at its fume cupboards drop below benchmark, with the fan not reaching its rated speed. We checked static pressure, sealed a loose joint and re-tested each point against its benchmark, and the system met its control standards, with the readings logged and reported. Compounding handles potent powders, so the containment was examined to its safe face velocity.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Guisborough 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 Cleveland Gate 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 Guisborough line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and machine shops 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.
For most Guisborough sites - from the Cleveland Gate Business Park units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Guisborough 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 Guisborough duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Waterfall Business Centre 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 engineering and machine shops bay, a brewing and food production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Cleveland Gate Business Park unit will ask to see.
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 Cleveland Gate Business Park or a smaller Guisborough workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Guisborough 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.
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 Guisborough, but a Cleveland Gate Business Park fabrication shop and a Westgate canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Cleveland Gate Business Park units, term-time access at the Guisborough university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Cleveland Gate Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Local knowledge
Robert de Brus founded the Augustinian Gisborough Priory in 1119, and its soaring east-end arch - still the town's emblem - has watched over Guisborough for nine centuries. The monks were builders and metalworkers, and the town has stayed a place of skilled hands ever since. That same care now belongs on the workshop floor. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation across Cleveland Gate and the Waterfall Business Centre, proving each welding-fume arm and dust hood pulls to its design airflow and protects the people working beneath it.
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