Northampton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Northampton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Northampton
Northampton was the world capital of shoemaking - before the First World War nearly half the town worked in leather and footwear - and its built-up area now runs to more than 200,000 people.
The signature trade is leather and footwear - the buffing, sanding and finishing dust, the solvent adhesives and dyes - alongside the logistics and distribution of the Golden Triangle, the Carlsberg brewery, and the fabrication and bodyshops of the Brackmills and Moulton Park estates.
Every Northampton 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 Brackmills plant to the single-bench Northampton units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Northampton employers and others across Northamptonshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Dust and solvent-fume extraction over the buffing, sanding and finishing benches of the shoe trade, where fine leather dust and adhesive vapour need capture at source.
Flour-dust, steam and brewing extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the 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 Northampton bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Extraction and dust control across the distribution and engineering units of the Brackmills belt.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the University of Northampton and Northampton General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Northampton
We are out under Northampton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A traditional leather-footwear workshop in Northampton had the collection hoods at the buffing wheels packed solid with dense leather-shaving dust, choking the extraction right off. We cleared the packed debris out of the hood necks and ran a static-pressure check across the main cyclone separator. It failed at first on the total blockage, then passed once the line was clear and the transport velocity came back. It was a historic workshop with belt-driven machinery running overhead, so it was careful work around the moving parts.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Northampton 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 Brackmills 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 Northampton line.
Where exposure is in question - a leather and footwear 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 Northampton sites, from the Brackmills 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 Northampton 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 Northampton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Moulton 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 leather and footwear bay, a food and drink manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Leather and footwear, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, logistics and general engineering, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Brackmills and Moulton Park and across the wider Northamptonshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Brackmills units, term-time access at the Northampton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Brackmills unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Northampton 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 Brackmills and Moulton Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Northamptonshire.
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 Northampton, but a Brackmills fabrication shop and a Wellingborough Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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