Hythe · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hythe workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hythe
Hythe is one of the original Cinque Ports, a small coastal market town in the Folkestone and Hythe district of Kent, strung along the old cliff line where Romney Marsh meets the Channel. It carries its history openly, from the Royal Military Canal that runs through the middle of the town to the ossuary beneath St Leonard's Church, where a thousand medieval skulls are stacked in the crypt.
Behind the seafront and the Georgian High Street, Hythe's working economy runs on light manufacturing, food production, logistics and the trades, much of it grouped in the units at Lympne Industrial Estate and the Lympne Distribution Park just inland near junction 11 of the M20.
Every one of those Hythe 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 Lympne Industrial Estate units to the smaller Hythe workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Hythe and the rest of Kent it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on lathes and machining centres in the workshops around Lympne and Otterpond Lane, and in the maintenance shops that keep the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway fleet running from the Hythe terminus.
Steam canopies, flour dust and cooking-oil mist in the bakeries and catering kitchens behind the trade, including established food producers like Spicers of Hythe out on the Lympne estate.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Hythe cabinet shops and joinery works, 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 Lympne Industrial Estate units and the boat and trailer repair shops serving the shingle-beach fishing fleet. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume, mild steel included, is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Hythe and Lympne bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, the leading cause of occupational asthma, so booth airflow is examined against its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for school and college science prep rooms around Hythe and Saltwood and the quality-control benches in the industrial-estate units, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hythe
We are out under Hythe's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Face velocity across the welding-bench extract arms at a traditional Hythe blacksmith's forge was reading low, and the trail led to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We took benchmark readings, checked capture at each hood and dealt with a loose joint that was letting the system down. Once the unsealed joint was addressed the forge extraction met its control standards. The readings and report went into the file, watched over the whole time by the forge dog from a bench near the door.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Hythe system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Lympne 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 Hythe line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing 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 the great majority of Hythe sites, from the Lympne Industrial Estate 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 Hythe 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 Hythe duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Lympne Distribution Park 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 manufacturing 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 manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Lympne Industrial Estate and Lympne Distribution Park and across the wider Kent.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Hythe 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 Hythe, but a Lympne Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Prospect Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Lympne Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Hythe university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Lympne Industrial Estate and Lympne Distribution Park, 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 Lympne Industrial Estate 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
The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway opened from its Hythe terminus in 1927, designed by Henry Greenly as a fully operational main-line railway built to a fifteen-inch gauge, complete with express locomotives, double track and full-size signalling. That precision-engineering instinct still runs through the machine and maintenance shops around Hythe and the Lympne estate, and every one of them 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. The report says plainly where each system passes and where it needs work.
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