Shaftesbury · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Shaftesbury workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury is a Saxon hilltop town in the north of Dorset, home to around 7,300 people and the only significant hill town in the county, built more than 700 feet up on a greensand ridge above the Blackmore Vale.
Its working side gathers on the Longmead Industrial Estate east of the centre and the Wincombe Business Park off the A350, where joiners, printers, vehicle trades and small manufacturers run the light-industrial workshops a hilltop market town this size depends on.
Every Shaftesbury 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 Longmead Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Shaftesbury units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and 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 Shaftesbury and across Dorset it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Wood-dust extraction for the joinery, carpentry and furniture workshops on the Longmead estate, capturing hardwood, softwood and MDF dust at the machine. All three carry a workplace exposure limit and are treated as hazardous under COSHH.
Tailpipe-exhaust and brake-dust extraction across the service and MOT bays off Longmead, drawing diesel fume and fine dust away from the pit. Nitrogen dioxide and respirable particulate are both captured before they reach the ramp.
Solvent-vapour and drying-heat extraction across Shaftesbury's print and finishing units, where inks, cleaning solvents and laminating give off fume. Capture at the press keeps volatile organic vapour out of the workshop air.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Longmead Industrial Estate and Wincombe 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 Shaftesbury 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 Shaftesbury School and Westminster Memorial Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Shaftesbury
We are out under Shaftesbury's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An upholstery workshop in Shaftesbury had the dust-extraction hoods reading below benchmark since the last test, traced to a poorly sealed duct joint. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and sealed the leaking joint, then re-checked each point. Capture came back within benchmark once the joint was sealed, and we issued the LEV report with the readings.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Shaftesbury 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 Longmead 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 Shaftesbury line.
Where exposure is in question - a joinery and woodwork process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For the great majority of Shaftesbury sites, from the Longmead Industrial Estate 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 Shaftesbury 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 Shaftesbury duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Wincombe 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 woodwork bay, a vehicle servicing and mot bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Shaftesbury 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Longmead Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Shaftesbury 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 Longmead Industrial Estate or a smaller Shaftesbury workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Longmead Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
joinery and woodwork, vehicle servicing and MOT, print and finishing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and labs and fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Longmead Industrial Estate and Wincombe Business Park and across the wider Dorset.
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 Longmead 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.
Local knowledge
Shaftesbury Abbey was founded in 888 by King Alfred the Great, who installed his daughter Aethelgifu as its first abbess, and it grew into the wealthiest Benedictine nunnery in England before Henry VIII dissolved it. That wealth once came from land and labour; today the town's working life is its light industry. On the Longmead and Wincombe units, welding fume, wood dust and solvent vapour all need capturing at source, and local exhaust ventilation is what keeps a small trade breathing clean under COSHH.
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