Kidderminster · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Kidderminster workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Kidderminster
Kidderminster is the carpet-weaving capital of Britain, a Worcestershire town of around 57,000, home of Brintons and birthplace of Rowland Hill, who invented the penny postage stamp.
The signature trade is carpets and textiles - the weaving, tufting and dye-finishing of the carpet town, the engineering and advanced manufacturing, and the plastics - across the Hoo Farm Industrial Estate and Oldington estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Kidderminster process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Hoo Farm Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Kidderminster units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and 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 Kidderminster and across Worcestershire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Fibre-dust and dye-vapour extraction across the weaving, tufting and finishing lines of the carpet town, the defining trade of Kidderminster, where fine textile fibre is both a health and a combustion risk.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and advanced-manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Fume, dust and vapour extraction across the plastics and finishing lines, where process fume needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Hoo Farm Industrial Estate and Oldington units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Kidderminster 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 Kidderminster College and Kidderminster Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Kidderminster
We are out under Kidderminster's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A carpet-manufacturing mill in Kidderminster had a dust-extraction hood over a tufting line pulling weak, letting fine yarn fibre drift off the machine and settle on the beams. We cleared the choked hood, checked the collector had capacity and traversed the capture velocity across the working width. It failed at first on the low face velocity and passed once the hood and filter were cleared, the capture back at its design figure. Fine textile fibre is both a respiratory and a combustion risk, so the dust housekeeping was checked alongside the airflow.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Kidderminster 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 Hoo Farm 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 Kidderminster line.
Where exposure is in question - a carpet and textile manufacturing 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.
For most Kidderminster sites - from the Hoo Farm Industrial Estate 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 Kidderminster 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 Kidderminster duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Oldington Trading 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 carpet and textile manufacturing bay, an engineering and advanced manufacturing 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 Hoo Farm Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Kidderminster 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 Hoo Farm Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Kidderminster 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 Hoo Farm Industrial Estate and Oldington Trading Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Worcestershire.
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 Hoo Farm Industrial Estate or a smaller Kidderminster workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Carpet and textile manufacturing, engineering and advanced manufacturing, plastics and finishing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Hoo Farm Industrial Estate and Oldington Trading Estate and across the wider Worcestershire.
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