Littlehampton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Littlehampton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Littlehampton
Littlehampton is a seaside resort and working harbour town on the West Sussex coast, set on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun where it opens onto the English Channel. It is the town where The Body Shop grew into a global name and built its Watersmead headquarters, and where the longest bench in Britain runs 324 metres along the East Beach promenade.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the fabrication and marine trades, much of it grouped in the units at Riverside Industrial Estate off Bridge Road and the Watersmead Business Park on the northern edge of town.
Wherever a Littlehampton process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Riverside Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Littlehampton workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Littlehampton and the wider West Sussex it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, from long-established shops like Riverside Precision on the Riverside Industrial Estate, turning components for defence, construction and marine customers.
Steam canopies, oven extraction and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food manufacturers among the sixty-odd businesses on the Riverside Industrial Estate off Bridge Road.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Littlehampton cabinet shops and joinery works, in a town whose Hillyard boatyard cut and shaped timber for more than eight hundred cruising yachts on the west bank of the Arun.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Riverside and Watersmead units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Littlehampton 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 cosmetics and product-development laboratories the town grew around at Watersmead, and for local college and clinical labs, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Littlehampton
We are out under Littlehampton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A bodyshop in Littlehampton had its spray booth extraction pulling weakly, down to a worn fan impeller. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. Capture came back within benchmark once the tired filter was replaced, with readings and a report for the file. The supervisor was handed a short photo report for their insurance file.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Littlehampton 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 Riverside 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 Littlehampton line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and 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 Littlehampton sites - from the Riverside 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 Littlehampton 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 Littlehampton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Watersmead Business 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. A precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Riverside Industrial Estate and Watersmead Business Park and across the wider West Sussex.
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 Littlehampton, but a Riverside Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Riverside Industrial Estate or a smaller Littlehampton 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 Riverside Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Riverside Industrial Estate and Watersmead Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Sussex.
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 Riverside 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.
Local knowledge
David Hillyard set up his boatyard at Littlehampton around 1904, building pinnaces for the Admiralty before moving to larger premises on the west bank of the Arun and turning out more than eight hundred cruising yachts to his own designs before the firm finally closed in 2009. That instinct for careful, close-tolerance work still runs through the town's machine shops and engineering suppliers, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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