Rothwell · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Rothwell workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Rothwell
Rothwell sits on the ridge in the south-east of Leeds, between the city and Wakefield, a former coal town of around twenty thousand people whose name the wider world reaches through John Blenkinsop. The colliery engineer, buried in Rothwell's parish churchyard, patented the rack rail in 1811 that put the first commercially successful steam locomotive to work on the neighbouring Middleton line.
Its working economy still leans on the fabrication, distribution and engineering trades, much of it grouped in the warehouse and industrial units at Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road and the Rothwell Industrial Estate on Wood Lane close to the Leeds ring road.
Every one of those Rothwell 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 Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road units to the smaller Rothwell 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 Rothwell and across West Yorkshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops in the Stourton and Wood Lane units, carrying on the engineering instinct that Rothwell Haigh coal bred in the town.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, food-prep and cold-store units across the Stourton Point distribution park that feeds south Leeds.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Rothwell 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 Stourton and Rothwell Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Rothwell and Oulton 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, technical training rooms and quality-control benches serving the south Leeds engineering base, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Rothwell
We are out under Rothwell's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A refurbished hair salon in Rothwell had capture velocity dropping below benchmark at some of the station extract nozzles, with a filter well overdue for replacement. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. On re-test the LEV passed across the station nozzles, with a compliance report ready for the HSE file. We scheduled the work for the weekly closed day when the studio was shut.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Rothwell system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road 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 Rothwell 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.
On most Rothwell sites - the Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Rothwell 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 Rothwell duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the the Rothwell Industrial Estate on Wood Lane 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. 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 Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Rothwell 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.
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 Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road or a smaller Rothwell workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road units, term-time access at the Rothwell university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Rothwell, but a Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road fabrication shop and a Commercial Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Stourton Point on Haigh Park Road and the Rothwell Industrial Estate on Wood Lane and across the wider West Yorkshire.
Local knowledge
Coal was worked on Rothwell Haigh for more than six hundred years, from medieval bell pits to the deep shafts the Charlesworth family drove after taking the Haigh lease in 1820. That mining bred engineers: John Blenkinsop, the colliery viewer buried in Rothwell's churchyard, patented the rack rail in 1811 that carried the first commercially successful steam locomotive on the Middleton line the following year. The same instinct for machinery still runs through the town's engineering and fabrication shops, 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.
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