Marlborough · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Marlborough workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Marlborough
Marlborough sits on the River Kennet in eastern Wiltshire, a market town of around 9,100 people. Its High Street - colonnaded, tile-hung and one of the widest in England - has anchored the town's trade since the rebuild that followed the great fire of 1653.
The workshops behind that frontage - joiners, motor trades and light engineering - cluster out on Salisbury Road Business Park and at Elcot Park, the old Garrard Engineering works on the edge of town.
Wherever a Marlborough 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 Salisbury Road Business Park units down to the smallest Marlborough workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Marlborough and across Wiltshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Wood-dust extraction on saws, sanders and routers in the town's joinery shops. Hardwood dust is a recognised cause of nasal cancer, so tools are ducted to a rated LEV unit rather than swept up at the bench.
Flour-dust control in Marlborough's bakeries and production kitchens. Flour is one of the most common causes of occupational asthma, so mixing and sieving areas are extracted and the capture airflow is checked.
Tailpipe exhaust extraction in the town's garages and MOT bays. Diesel engine exhaust is classed as carcinogenic, so engines run indoors are ducted straight out rather than left to fill the workshop.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Salisbury Road Business Park and Elcot 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 Marlborough 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 Marlborough College and Savernake Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Marlborough
We are out under Marlborough's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A cabinet maker's dust-extraction system in Marlborough was reading low on face velocity across its hoods, traced to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We carried out a full thorough examination and test - velocity readings, smoke visualisation and a filter check - then cleared debris from the ducting and re-checked. The system met control standards once the ducting was cleared, and we issued full test documentation.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Marlborough 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 Salisbury Road Business 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 Marlborough line.
Where exposure is in question - a joinery and cabinetmaking 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.
On most Marlborough sites - the Salisbury Road Business Park units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Marlborough 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 Marlborough duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Elcot 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 joinery and cabinetmaking bay, a bakeries and food production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Salisbury Road Business Park unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Marlborough 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 Salisbury Road Business Park and Elcot Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Wiltshire.
joinery and cabinetmaking, bakeries and food production, vehicle servicing and MOT bays, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Salisbury Road Business Park and Elcot Park and across the wider Wiltshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Salisbury Road Business Park units, term-time access at the Marlborough 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 Salisbury Road Business Park 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
On 28 April 1653 a fire that began in a tanner's yard destroyed 244 houses and gutted the town in roughly four hours. The rebuild widened the High Street into one of the broadest in England, colonnaded and tile-hung. The workshops trading behind it today - joiners, sprayers, welders - carry the same fire and fume risks, which is why their local exhaust ventilation is tested to HSE guidance and logged, so the capture airflow can be proven rather than assumed.
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