Tamworth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Tamworth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Tamworth
Tamworth is a Staffordshire town of around 78,000, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Mercia, now a major distribution hub in the logistics golden triangle.
The work is logistics and engineering - the distribution and warehousing off the A5 and M42, the engineering and automotive-component manufacturing, and the food manufacturing - across the Bonehill Road and Ninian Way estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Tamworth 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 Bonehill Road units down to the smallest Tamworth workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Tamworth and the wider Staffordshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the A5 and M42 distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and automotive-component units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Bonehill Road and Ninian Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Tamworth 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 South Staffordshire College Tamworth campus and the Sir Robert Peel Community Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Tamworth
We are out under Tamworth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A logistics depot forklift workshop in Tamworth had an overhead spring-reeled exhaust hose trailing on the floor after its internal tension mechanism broke. We secured the hose manually to test the airflow, measured the total volumetric exhaust flow and logged the structural failure. It passed on the core airflow but failed on physical safety grounds because of the trip hazard from the trailing hose. The warehouse had heavy automated-vehicle traffic, so we set warning cones and barriers around the bay.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Tamworth 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 Bonehill 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 Tamworth line.
Where exposure is in question - a logistics and distribution 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.
For most Tamworth sites - from the Bonehill Road units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Tamworth 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 Tamworth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Ninian Way 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 logistics and distribution bay, an engineering and manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Tamworth, but a Bonehill Road fabrication shop and a George Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Bonehill Road and Ninian Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Staffordshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Tamworth 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 Bonehill Road 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 Bonehill Road or a smaller Tamworth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Bonehill Road units, term-time access at the Tamworth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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