Morecambe · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Morecambe workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Morecambe
Morecambe is a Lancashire seaside town of around 35,000 people looking west across the vast sands of Morecambe Bay, a faded Victorian resort now pinning its revival on the £100 million Eden Project Morecambe due to open on the seafront in 2028. It is the town the comedian Eric Bartholomew loved so much he borrowed its name, and his Graham Ibbeson statue on the promenade was unveiled by the Queen in 1999.
Its working economy leans on the huge Heysham employers next door - the two EDF nuclear power stations and the port - and on the light-industrial and engineering units clustered at the White Lund Industrial Estate and Middleton Industrial Estate.
Wherever a Morecambe 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 White Lund Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Morecambe 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 Morecambe and across Lancashire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres in the White Lund unit, from the machine shops feeding the Heysham nuclear supply chain to the general engineers who keep the port and the estates running.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Morecambe's bakeries and the shellfish and seafood processors who still work the famous Morecambe Bay cockles and potted shrimps.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at White Lund cabinet shops, window makers and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the White Lund and Heysham fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Morecambe and Heysham 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 Lancaster and Morecambe College and the technical and control laboratories at the Heysham power stations, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Morecambe
We are out under Morecambe's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A traditional agricultural engineering workshop in Morecambe had its fume extraction arms under-performing against benchmark, down to a worn fan impeller. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. Sealing a leaking connection brought the system back to control standards, and we compiled a full LEV report for the COSHH file, working a bank holiday while the bay was closed.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Morecambe system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the White Lund 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 Morecambe 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
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For the great majority of Morecambe sites, from the White Lund Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Morecambe 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 Morecambe duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Middleton Industrial Estate 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.
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 White Lund Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 White Lund Industrial Estate and Middleton Industrial Estate and across the wider Lancashire.
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 Morecambe, but a White Lund Industrial Estate fabrication shop and an Euston Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Morecambe 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the White Lund Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Morecambe 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 White Lund 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
Heysham 1 came on line in 1983 and Heysham 2 in 1988, two advanced gas-cooled reactor stations on the coast just south of the town that between them employ well over a thousand people and anchor the whole area's skilled economy. That precision instinct still runs through Morecambe's machine shops and the engineering units on White Lund, 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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