Shoreham-by-Sea · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Shoreham-by-Sea workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Shoreham-by-Sea
Shoreham-by-Sea is a working port town at the mouth of the River Adur, set between Brighton and Worthing in the Adur district of West Sussex, and home to Brighton City Airport - the UK's oldest licensed airport, whose 1936 Art Deco terminal is Grade II* listed. Its converted houseboats moored along the Adur and the Norman church of St Mary de Haura give the town a character all its own.
Its working economy runs on the port, engineering and the fabrication trades, from the timber, aggregates, steel and grain crossing the quays at Shoreham Port to the engine and vehicle testing at the Ricardo Technical Centre and the industrial units along Ham Road.
Every Shoreham-by-Sea 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 Shoreham Port plant to the single-bench Shoreham-by-Sea 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 Shoreham-by-Sea employers and others across West Sussex it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on machining centres and engine test cells, from the Ricardo Technical Centre on the Old Shoreham Road to the aircraft maintenance hangars at Brighton City Airport.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Shoreham's bakeries and kitchens, and the grain and cereals that cross the quays at Shoreham Port among its bulk cargoes.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Shoreham cabinet shops and joinery works, drawing on the timber landed through Shoreham Port, 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 Ham Road units and the steel-fabrication trades around Shoreham Port. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Shoreham and Southwick 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 Ricardo test laboratories and the engineering workshops in the area, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Shoreham-by-Sea
We are out under Shoreham-by-Sea's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Capture at the solder benches of a high-street Shoreham-by-Sea electronics workshop had fallen off, the extract tips let down by a worn fan impeller. We checked static pressure, cleared debris out of the ducting and re-tested each point against benchmark. One tip failed initially on that debris and passed after the remedial work, with the report handed over on completion. We set up a recurring six-monthly clean to keep on top of it.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Shoreham-by-Sea 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 Shoreham Port 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 Shoreham-by-Sea line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and vehicle testing 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.
For the great majority of Shoreham-by-Sea sites, from the Shoreham Port 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 Shoreham-by-Sea 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 Shoreham-by-Sea duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the the Ham Road industrial 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 vehicle testing 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. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Shoreham-by-Sea 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 Shoreham Port unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Shoreham Port and the Ham Road industrial units, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Sussex.
precision engineering and vehicle testing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Shoreham Port and the Ham Road industrial units and across the wider West Sussex.
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 Shoreham Port production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Shoreham Port units, term-time access at the Shoreham-by-Sea university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Harry Ricardo set up a research laboratory at Shoreham-by-Sea in 1919, and the Shoreham Technical Centre on the Old Shoreham Road grew into one of Britain's foremost engine and vehicle engineering sites, running more than ninety test-beds and, more recently, hydrogen and electric-vehicle test rigs. That engineering instinct still runs through the town's machine shops, the aircraft maintenance hangars at Brighton City Airport and the fabrication units around Shoreham Port, 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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