Leek · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Leek workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Leek
Leek is a historic silk and textile-dyeing town of around 19,400 in the Staffordshire Moorlands, known as the Queen of the Moorlands and the gateway to the Peak District, with its William Morris and Arts and Crafts links.
The signature trade is food and manufacturing - the dairy and food manufacturing, the advanced manufacturing and fine chemicals, and the technical textiles and building products - across the Barnfields Industrial Estate and Churnet Works estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Leek 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 Barnfields Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Leek units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Leek employers and others across Staffordshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Steam, cooking-vapour and fat-laden extraction across the butter and cheese processing lines of the town's largest employer, where the process heat and moisture load the ductwork and need capture at source.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and chemical-vapour extraction across the construction-equipment and fine-chemicals units, where metal fume and process vapour each need capture proven.
Solvent-vapour, heat-set fume and dust extraction across the technical-textile printing and coating lines, heir to the town's silk heritage, where the dyehouse and coating benches need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Barnfields Industrial Estate and Churnet Works units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Leek 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 Leek Moorlands Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Leek
We are out under Leek's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A dairy and food plant in Leek had a steam-and-cook extraction over a butter-and-cheese processing line pulling weak because the ducting above it had loaded with fat and condensate. We ran the capture checks on the sound sections and logged the fouling. It failed on the restricted duct and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the clean and remedial run. The line ran hot and humid, so the test was fitted around a wash-down shift.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Leek system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Barnfields 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 Leek line.
Where exposure is in question - a dairy and food manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For most Leek sites - from the Barnfields 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 Leek 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 Leek duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Churnet Works 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 dairy and food manufacturing bay, an advanced manufacturing and fine chemicals bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Barnfields Industrial Estate or a smaller Leek workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Barnfields Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Barnfields Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Leek university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Leek 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.
Dairy and food manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and fine chemicals, technical textiles and building products, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Barnfields Industrial Estate and Churnet Works and across the wider Staffordshire.
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 Leek, but a Barnfields Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Derby Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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