Leamington Spa · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Leamington Spa workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Leamington Spa
Leamington Spa is a Regency spa town in Warwickshire, around 51,000, granted its Royal prefix by Queen Victoria and now home to Silicon Spa, the UK's largest games-development cluster.
The work is engineering and advanced manufacturing - the automotive and drivetrain engineering, the advanced manufacturing and defence, and the precision engineering and prototyping - across the Sydenham Industrial Estate and Tachbrook Park, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Leamington Spa 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 Sydenham Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Leamington Spa workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Leamington Spa and the rest of Warwickshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist, weld-fume and machining extraction across the automotive and drivetrain-engineering units, where metalworking-fluid mist needs capture at source.
Weld-fume, coating-vapour and grinding extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and defence units of Tachbrook Park, where metal fume and vapour need capture proven.
Machining, solder-fume and solvent extraction across the precision-engineering and prototyping units, where dust, fume and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Sydenham Industrial Estate and Tachbrook Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Leamington 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 Warwick Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Leamington Spa
We are out under Leamington Spa's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A drivetrain-engineering workshop in Leamington Spa had an oil-mist extraction unit over a test rig letting a fine lubricant haze escape because the coalescing filter had loaded solid. We measured the capture at the enclosure and checked the mist-collector differential. It failed on the saturated filter and the mist breakthrough, even with the fan pulling to spec. The rig ran automotive transmissions at load, so the test was fitted around a scheduled rig changeover.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Leamington Spa 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 Sydenham 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 Leamington Spa line.
Where exposure is in question - an automotive and drivetrain engineering 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 Leamington Spa sites, from the Sydenham 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 Leamington Spa 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 Leamington Spa duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Tachbrook 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. An automotive and drivetrain engineering bay, an advanced manufacturing and defence 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 Sydenham Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Leamington Spa 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 Sydenham 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.
Automotive and drivetrain engineering, advanced manufacturing and defence, precision engineering and prototyping, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Sydenham Industrial Estate and Tachbrook Park and across the wider Warwickshire.
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 Sydenham Industrial Estate or a smaller Leamington Spa 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 Leamington Spa, but a Sydenham Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Parade canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Sydenham Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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