Nelson · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Nelson workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Nelson
Nelson is a Pendle cotton-weaving town of around 34,000 people in east Lancashire, and it holds an oddity no other town of its size in Britain can match - it takes its name from a pub, the Lord Nelson Inn, after which the railway station and then the whole town were named. It grew from the old villages of Great and Little Marsden into a weaving powerhouse whose radical, union-strong politics earned it the nickname 'Little Moscow' between the wars.
Its working economy still leans on manufacturing and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units off Junction 12 of the M65 at Lomeshaye Industrial Estate and the older Lomeshaye Business Village.
Every one of those Nelson 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 Lomeshaye Industrial Estate units to the smaller Nelson workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Nelson and the rest of Lancashire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, from the laser-welding and aerospace, nuclear and medical work at firms like Graham Engineering to the wider Pendle precision cluster that feeds the county's aerospace supply chain.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and the contract packing and food manufacturers on Lomeshaye Industrial Estate, where powders and vapours are drawn off at source.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Nelson cabinet shops 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 Lomeshaye units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Nelson 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 Nelson and Colne College and the clinical areas of Pendle Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Nelson
We are out under Nelson's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A high-street furniture spray shop in Nelson had its spray booth extraction pulling weakly, down to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with a tired filter. One point failed initially on an unsealed joint and passed after remedial work, with a compliance report for the HSE file. The workshop manager kept us going with cups of tea through the morning.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Nelson 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 Lomeshaye 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 Nelson 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 most Nelson sites - from the Lomeshaye 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 Nelson 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 Nelson duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Lomeshaye Business Village 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.
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 Nelson, but a Lomeshaye Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Scotland Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Lomeshaye Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Lomeshaye Industrial Estate or a smaller Nelson workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Lomeshaye Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Nelson university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Lomeshaye Industrial Estate and Lomeshaye Business Village and across the wider Lancashire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Lomeshaye Industrial Estate and Lomeshaye Business Village, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lancashire.
Local knowledge
By 1910 more than twelve thousand Nelson weavers belonged to the Nelson and District Power-Loom Weavers' Association, working the looms in sheds where the town, unlike its spinning neighbours, chose weaving as its trade. That manufacturing instinct still runs through Pendle's precision-engineering and aerospace shops, 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. Nothing is signed off until the numbers on the anemometer match the numbers on the drawing.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.