Leigh · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Leigh workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Leigh
Leigh is a former cotton-spinning and coal-mining town of around 45,500 in Greater Manchester's Wigan borough, home to the Grade II* Leigh Spinners Mill, the Leigh Leopards rugby league club and Pennington Flash country park.
The signature trade is engineering and logistics - the fabrication and advanced manufacturing, the food and drink manufacturing, and the distribution of the East Lancashire Road - across the Parsonage Industrial Estate and Leigh Commerce Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Leigh 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 Parsonage Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Leigh units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Leigh and the wider Greater Manchester it is your evidence under COSHH.
Weld-fume, oil-mist and paint-vapour extraction across the machining, fabrication and coatings units, where manufacturing employs a fifth of the town, and where metal fume and mist need capture at source.
Flour-dust, steam and cooking-fume extraction across the bakery and food-processing units, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk and needs capture proven.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and forklift-exhaust extraction across the East Lancashire Road distribution parks, where the maintenance and repair bays need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Parsonage Industrial Estate and Leigh Commerce 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 Leigh 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 Wigan and Leigh College and Leigh Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Leigh
We are out under Leigh's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A protective-coatings manufacturing unit in Leigh had a solvent-vapour extraction over a coating-and-curing line pulling weak, letting vapour drift into the workspace. We measured the capture at the line and checked the ducting and fan for losses. It failed on the low capture and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The line ran solvent coatings, so the vapour monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Leigh 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 Parsonage 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 Leigh line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and advanced 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.
Across most Leigh sites - the Parsonage Industrial Estate 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 Leigh 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 Leigh duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Leigh Commerce 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 engineering and advanced manufacturing bay, a food and drink manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Leigh 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.
Engineering and advanced manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, logistics and distribution, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and infirmary - the trades clustered around Parsonage Industrial Estate and Leigh Commerce Park and across the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Parsonage 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.
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 Parsonage Industrial Estate or a smaller Leigh workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Parsonage Industrial Estate and Leigh Commerce Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Parsonage Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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