Lichfield · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Lichfield workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Lichfield
Lichfield is a Staffordshire cathedral city of around 34,700, famed for the three-spired cathedral and as the birthplace of the dictionary author Samuel Johnson, with light industry on the estates by the A38.
The signature trade is engineering and logistics - the light manufacturing of Britannia Enterprise Park, the distribution of the sheds by the A38 and A5, and the food and drink trade - across the Britannia Enterprise Park and Fradley Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Lichfield 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 Britannia Enterprise Park units to the smaller Lichfield workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Lichfield and across Staffordshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Boiler-flue, plastic-forming and spray-coating fume extraction across the manufacturing and coatings units of Britannia Enterprise Park, where process fume and vapour need capture at source.
Battery-charging, packing-line and forklift-exhaust extraction across the large distribution sheds near the A38, A5 and M6 Toll, where the charging bays and maintenance units need capture proven.
Steam, mist and oven-fume extraction across the food producers and estate canteens, where cooking fume and grease need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Britannia Enterprise Park and Fradley 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 Lichfield 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 Samuel Johnson Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Lichfield
We are out under Lichfield's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A distribution-park unit near Lichfield had a battery-charging bay with the extraction over the charging bank pulling weak, letting hydrogen and acid mist build in the enclosure. We measured the capture across the bank and checked the interlock on the charger ventilation. It failed on the low capture, and we specified the fan and ducting work. The bay charged a large forklift fleet, so the gas build-up was checked alongside the airflow.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Lichfield 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 Britannia Enterprise Park 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 Lichfield line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and light 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.
Across most Lichfield sites - the Britannia Enterprise Park 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 Lichfield 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 Lichfield duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Fradley 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 light manufacturing bay, a logistics and distribution bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Engineering and light manufacturing, logistics and distribution, food and drink and commercial catering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Britannia Enterprise Park and Fradley Park and across the wider Staffordshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Lichfield 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 Britannia Enterprise Park and Fradley Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Staffordshire.
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 Britannia Enterprise Park or a smaller Lichfield workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Britannia Enterprise Park units, term-time access at the Lichfield university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Lichfield, but a Britannia Enterprise Park fabrication shop and a Bore Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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