Margate · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Margate workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Margate
Margate is a classic Kent seaside resort in the Thanet district, around 61,000, home to the revived Dreamland and the Turner Contemporary at the heart of a creative-led regeneration.
The work spans food and light industry - the food manufacturing and catering, the engineering and advanced manufacturing, and the creative-industry workshops - across the Shottendane Road and Thanet Reach estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Margate 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 Shottendane Road units to the smaller Margate workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Margate employers and others across Kent it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers and high-volume seaside catering units, where organic dust needs capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and advanced-manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Weld-fume, resin-vapour and wood-dust extraction across the creative-industry and maker workshops of the regenerated town, where fume and dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Shottendane Road and Thanet Reach units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Margate 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 QEQM Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Margate
We are out under Margate's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A vehicle bodyshop on Shottendane Road in Margate had a spray-booth extraction failing its airflow check because the exhaust filters were blinded with overspray and the make-up air was starved. We measured the booth face velocity and the filter differential and checked the cross-draught. It failed on the low airflow from the blinded filters, so the booth could not hold clean spraying conditions until they were changed. Two-pack paints release isocyanates, so air-fed breathing protection and full booth lockout were in place.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Margate 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 Shottendane Road 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 Margate line.
Where exposure is in question - a food manufacturing and catering process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
Across most Margate sites - the Shottendane Road 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 Margate 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 Margate duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Thanet Reach 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 food manufacturing and catering bay, an engineering and advanced manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Shottendane Road and Thanet Reach Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Kent.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Margate 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. 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 Shottendane Road unit will ask to see.
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 Margate, but a Shottendane Road fabrication shop and an Old Town canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Shottendane Road units, term-time access at the Margate 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 Shottendane Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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