Skipton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Skipton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Skipton
Skipton is a market town of around 15,000 people in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, long billed as the Gateway to the Dales. Skipton Castle crowns the top of a broad, setted High Street where a chartered market has traded four days a week for centuries.
Its working economy runs south from the tourist centre to the Snaygill and Wyvern Park estates, where engineering, food production and vehicle workshops sit alongside the retail and hospitality trade of the town.
Wherever a Skipton process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Snaygill Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Skipton workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Skipton employers and others across North Yorkshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and metalworking-fluid extraction on the machining lines at Snaygill and Wyvern Park. Coolant thrown off at speed hangs in the air as a fine mist that LEV has to capture right at the tool.
Dust extraction for the joineries and cabinet shops working across Craven. Hardwood dust is a known cause of nasal cancer, so hoods and hose runs are tested to prove they pull enough at each machine.
Flour and ingredient-dust control in the town's bakeries and food units. Fine organic dust both harms the lungs and can explode, so extraction is checked to keep airborne concentrations well down.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Snaygill and Wyvern 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 Skipton 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 Craven College and Airedale General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Skipton
We are out under Skipton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A vehicle workshop in Skipton had its tailpipe extraction reels under-performing against benchmark, with a worn fan impeller. 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. Capture came back within benchmark once the ducting was cleared, and we issued the LEV report.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Skipton system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Snaygill 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 Skipton line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and cnc machining 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 Skipton sites - the Snaygill Industrial Estate 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 Skipton 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 Skipton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Wyvern 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 cnc machining bay, a joinery and woodworking 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 Snaygill Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Snaygill Industrial Estate or a smaller Skipton 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 Snaygill 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.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Skipton 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 Snaygill Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Skipton 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 Skipton, but a Snaygill Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Local knowledge
Skipton Castle, held by the Clifford family, is one of the most complete and best-preserved medieval castles in England. It withstood a three-year Royalist siege in the Civil War, surrendering in 1645 as the last northern stronghold to fall, before Lady Anne Clifford restored it under the Desormais motto carved above the gate. Extraction demands the same resolve: our engineers test and certify local LEV so workshop air stays fit to breathe.
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