Poulton-le-Fylde · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Poulton-le-Fylde workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Poulton-le-Fylde
Poulton-le-Fylde is a historic market town on the Fylde coastal plain in Lancashire, set inland from Blackpool on the River Wyre. Once described in 1837 as the metropolis of the Fylde, it kept a weekly market and two harbours long before Fleetwood and Blackpool grew, and its Georgian Market Place still holds the market cross, stocks, whipping post and fish stones where fishmongers once sold their catch.
Behind the market square the town's working economy runs on engineering, joinery and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the older units of the Poulton Industrial Estate off the A586 and the workshops along Aldon Road and Wyre Court.
Every Poulton-le-Fylde 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 Poulton Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Poulton-le-Fylde 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 Poulton-le-Fylde employers and others across Lancashire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on lathes and machining centres across the Poulton Industrial Estate, and in the shops that feed the Fylde aerospace supply chain around BAE Systems at Warton.
Steam canopies, flour dust and cold-store extraction in the bakeries, butchers and food units serving the town and the wider Blackpool and Fylde hospitality trade.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Poulton cabinet 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 Aldon Road and Wyre Court workshops. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Poulton bodyshops and the commercial vehicle units on the industrial estate. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Grain dust, welding fume and paint extraction in the agricultural engineering and repair shops that serve the Fylde's surrounding farmland, where dust and fume control keeps the air fit to breathe.
On the ground in Poulton-le-Fylde
We are out under Poulton-le-Fylde's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Airflow at the bench capture hoods of a privately owned Poulton-le-Fylde welding bay had fallen since its last test, traced to a slipping fan drive belt. We took benchmark readings, visualised the capture at each hood and made good an unsealed joint. Capture returned within benchmark once that joint was sorted, all written up in a signed HSG258 report. We handled it in a single visit so the team barely noticed us.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Poulton-le-Fylde 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 Poulton 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 Poulton-le-Fylde 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
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Poulton-le-Fylde sites - the Poulton 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 Poulton-le-Fylde 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 Poulton-le-Fylde duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the the Aldon Road and Wyre Court units 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Poulton Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Poulton-le-Fylde 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 Poulton 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 Poulton 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.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Poulton-le-Fylde 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.
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 Poulton-le-Fylde, but a Poulton Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Ball Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Poulton Industrial Estate or a smaller Poulton-le-Fylde workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
Poulton grew rich as the market and port town of the Fylde, importing and exporting goods through two harbours on the River Wyre before the railway to Fleetwood opened in 1840 and shifted the trade away. That commercial instinct still runs through the town's engineering and fabrication shops on the Poulton Industrial Estate, 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.