Richmond · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Richmond workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Richmond
Richmond is the historic market town at the mouth of Swaledale, home to roughly 8,400 people and the gateway to the dale beyond. Its Norman castle stands high over the River Swale above one of the largest cobbled market squares in England.
Beyond the independent shops and tourism, real trade goes on across Gallowfields and Colburn Business Park - joinery, engineering, motor work and coatings - and Catterick Garrison, the British Army's largest garrison, sits just to the south.
Each of those Richmond processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Gallowfields units to the one-bench Richmond workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods 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 Richmond and across North Yorkshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Wood-dust extraction on saws, sanders and routers in the workshops off Gallowfields. Hardwood dust is a known cause of nasal cancer, so hoods and filters are tested to prove they still hold capture at the tool.
Fume and dust control for the farm-machinery and repair trades that serve Swaledale and the surrounding dales. Grinding, welding and paint work all load the air, and each extraction point is checked against its design duty.
On-tool extraction for the masons cutting and dressing the local sandstone that built Georgian Richmond. Respirable crystalline silica is tightly controlled, so capture at the blade is tested rather than assumed.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Gallowfields and Colburn 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 Richmond 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 Darlington College at Catterick Garrison and the Friarage Hospital at Northallerton, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Richmond
We are out under Richmond's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics workshop in Richmond had the extraction on its solder benches pulling poorly, down to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter, then cleared debris from the ducting and re-checked. All points passed on re-test once the ducting was cleared, and we issued a signed HSG258 report.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Richmond system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Gallowfields 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 Richmond line.
Where exposure is in question - a joinery and cabinetmaking 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.
Across most Richmond sites - the Gallowfields 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 Richmond 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 Richmond duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Colburn Business 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 joinery and cabinetmaking bay, an agricultural engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
joinery and cabinetmaking, agricultural engineering, stonemasonry, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Gallowfields and Colburn Business Park and across the wider North Yorkshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Richmond 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. 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 Gallowfields unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Gallowfields and Colburn Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider North Yorkshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Gallowfields units, term-time access at the Richmond university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Gallowfields or a smaller Richmond workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
Richmond Castle was begun in 1071 by Alan Rufus, the Breton lord granted these lands by William the Conqueror, and its Scolland's Hall is reckoned among the oldest domestic buildings in England. Nine centuries on, the trades working below the keep run modern kit that throws off welding fume, solvent vapour and fine dust. Local Exhaust Ventilation is what captures it at source, and the law requires that every system be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months.
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