Peterlee · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Peterlee workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Peterlee
Peterlee is a County Durham new town, designated in 1948 and named after Peter Lee, the East Durham pitman who taught himself to read as a grown man and rose to chair England's first all-Labour county council. Built to give the mining families of the coalfield a town of their own, it is known today for Victor Pasmore's Apollo Pavilion, the great slab of abstract concrete that has become the symbol of the place.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped on the South West and North East Industrial Estates that the new town raised west of the A19.
Every one of those Peterlee 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 South West Industrial Estate units to the smaller Peterlee workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Peterlee and across County Durham it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Coolant-mist and oil-mist extraction on the CNC lines and grinding cells of the estates, from Caterpillar's articulated-truck plant to the precision bearing work NSK built the town's engineering name on.
Fryer steam, starch dust and seasoning-powder control in Peterlee's food factories, including the crisp lines Walkers Snack Foods runs on the estates, along with the town's bakeries and caterers.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Peterlee joinery and cabinet shops, 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 fabrication units on the South West and North East Industrial Estates. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Peterlee 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 the laboratories at East Durham College's Peterlee campus and the science and technology units of the wider East Durham cluster, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Peterlee
We are out under Peterlee's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A small Peterlee ceramics studio had dust capture hoods under-performing against benchmark, with a leaking flexible connection behind it. We checked static pressure, made the leaking connection good and re-tested each point against benchmark. One point failed at first on a blocked filter and passed once put right, with a compliance report prepared for the HSE file. We also left images and a test report for the compliance records.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Peterlee 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 South West 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 Peterlee 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.
Across most Peterlee sites - the South West Industrial Estate plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Peterlee 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 Peterlee duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the North East 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.
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 Peterlee, but a South West Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Yoden Way 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 South West Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 South West 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.
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 South West Industrial Estate or a smaller Peterlee workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around South West Industrial Estate and North East Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider County Durham.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the South West Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Peterlee university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Peterlee rose out of the East Durham coalfield, a new town designated in 1948 and named after Peter Lee, the pitman who rose to lead Durham County Council. When the collieries closed the Development Corporation drew light industry onto the South West and North East Industrial Estates, and Caterpillar's articulated trucks and NSK's precision bearings gave the town a new engineering trade. Every machining line and coolant bath on those estates still throws off oil mist and metalworking fume that has to be captured at source. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation against its design figures, so the extraction reads true where COSHH demands it.
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