Newton Aycliffe · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Newton Aycliffe workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Newton Aycliffe
Newton Aycliffe was designated in 1947 as the first of Britain's post-war New Towns, the vision of Lord Beveridge, architect of the welfare state, who lived to see it built and gave his name to Beveridge Way at its heart. It rose on the marshy ground of the wartime Royal Ordnance Factory, where the women known as the Aycliffe Angels filled shells and detonators for the war effort.
Its working economy runs on rail and automotive manufacturing, precision engineering and the fabrication trades, most of it grouped on Aycliffe Business Park - the biggest single employment area in County Durham and one of the largest business parks in the UK.
Every Newton Aycliffe process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Aycliffe Business Park plant to the single-bench Newton Aycliffe units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Newton Aycliffe and across County Durham it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and press lines, from the Hitachi Rail train-building hall that has turned out Azuma and Intercity Express trains since 2015 to the Husqvarna and 3M plants on Aycliffe Business Park.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food producers around the town centre and business park, where vapour and fine dust are captured before they reach the lungs.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Newton Aycliffe 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 Aycliffe Business 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 local bodyshops and the automotive finishing that feeds the district around Gestamp Tallent, which presses car chassis and body parts across its Aycliffe plants. 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 town's manufacturing R and D labs and quality departments, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Newton Aycliffe
We are out under Newton Aycliffe's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Capture velocity at some extraction hoods in a busy Newton Aycliffe joinery workshop had dropped below benchmark, with a filter well overdue for replacement. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the hoods, sealed a leaking connection and re-checked each point. The system met control standards once the debris in the ducting was cleared, and we issued a signed report. We also left before-and-after photos and a service record for the audit file.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Newton Aycliffe system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Aycliffe 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 Newton Aycliffe line.
Where exposure is in question - a rail and precision engineering 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.
For most Newton Aycliffe sites - from the Aycliffe Business Park 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 Newton Aycliffe 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 Newton Aycliffe duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Newton Aycliffe 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 rail and precision engineering 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Aycliffe Business Park and Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider County Durham.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Newton Aycliffe 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 Aycliffe Business Park units, term-time access at the Newton Aycliffe university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
rail and precision engineering, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Aycliffe Business Park and Newton Aycliffe Industrial Estate and across the wider County Durham.
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 Newton Aycliffe, but an Aycliffe Business Park fabrication shop and a Beveridge Way canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 an Aycliffe 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
The government built the Royal Ordnance Factory at Aycliffe in 1941, and some 17,000 workers - the women among them known as the Aycliffe Angels - filled shells and detonators on marshy ground chosen for the fog that hid it from the bombers. That same site became Aycliffe Business Park, now one of the largest in the North East, where Hitachi Rail builds trains and Gestamp Tallent presses car chassis. Every one of those shops 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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