Shrewsbury · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Shrewsbury workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is a medieval county town in Shropshire of around 77,000, almost encircled by a loop of the River Severn and the birthplace of Charles Darwin.
The work is engineering and food - the engineering and manufacturing, the agricultural engineering of the rural county, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Harlescott and Battlefield Enterprise Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Shrewsbury 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 Harlescott units to the smaller Shrewsbury workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Shrewsbury and the wider Shropshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the agricultural-machinery and repair units of the rural county, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Harlescott and Battlefield Enterprise 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 Shrewsbury 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 Shrewsbury Colleges Group and the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Shrewsbury
We are out under Shrewsbury's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An agricultural engineering workshop in Shrewsbury had a mobile welding-fume extractor running with its spark-arrestor screen missing, so hot sparks were charring the paper filter. We fitted a new stainless mesh spark-arrestor screen, replaced the charred filter and verified the hood capture flow. It failed at first on the active fire hazard and passed once the screen and fresh filters were in. The workshop was mid-way through repairing large harvester chassis assemblies during the test window.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Shrewsbury 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 Harlescott 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 Shrewsbury line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
Across most Shrewsbury sites - the Harlescott 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 Shrewsbury 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 Shrewsbury duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Battlefield Enterprise 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. An engineering and manufacturing 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.
Engineering and manufacturing, agricultural engineering, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Harlescott and Battlefield Enterprise Park and across the wider Shropshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Harlescott units, term-time access at the Shrewsbury 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 Harlescott or a smaller Shrewsbury workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Harlescott production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Shrewsbury, but a Harlescott fabrication shop and a Wyle Cop canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Harlescott and Battlefield Enterprise Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Shropshire.
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