Herne Bay · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Herne Bay workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Herne Bay
Herne Bay is a Kent seaside resort in the Canterbury district, around 38,000, with a Victorian clock tower said to be the world's first free-standing, and a storm-marooned pier head standing out at sea.
The work is hospitality and light industry - the seaside catering, the light engineering and vehicle trades, and the food production - across the Sea Street and Vulcan Close estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Herne Bay 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 Sea Street units to the one-bench Herne Bay 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 Herne Bay and across Kent it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Grease-laden canopy and duct extraction across the seaside and town-centre kitchens, where the cooklines run hard through the season and need capture at source.
Weld-fume, spray-booth and grinding extraction across the light-engineering and vehicle-trade units, where fume and dust need capture proven.
Steam, flour-dust and mist extraction across the food and bakery producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Sea Street and Vulcan Close units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Herne Bay 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 Queen Victoria Memorial Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Herne Bay
We are out under Herne Bay's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A vehicle bodyshop on the Sea Street estate in Herne Bay had a spray-booth extraction failing its airflow check because the exhaust filters were blinded with overspray and the make-up air was starved. We measured the booth face velocity and the filter differential and checked the cross-draught. It failed on the low airflow from the blinded filters, so the booth could not hold clean spraying conditions until they were changed. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, so air-fed breathing protection and full booth lockout were in place.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Herne Bay 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 Sea Street 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 Herne Bay line.
Where exposure is in question - a seaside and hospitality catering process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Herne Bay sites - the Sea Street 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 Herne Bay 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 Herne Bay duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Vulcan Close 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 seaside and hospitality catering bay, a light engineering and vehicle trades 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 Sea Street units, term-time access at the Herne Bay university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Sea Street 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 Sea Street or a smaller Herne Bay workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Herne Bay, but a Sea Street fabrication shop and a Mortimer Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Sea Street and Vulcan Close, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Kent.
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 Sea Street production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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