Wigan · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wigan workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wigan
Wigan is a Greater Manchester borough of around 329,000, the county's second most populous after Manchester and home to Heinz's Kitt Green plant, one of the largest food factories in Europe.
The standout work is food manufacturing - the Kitt Green food plant, the pie bakeries and food producers - alongside engineering and metal fabrication and distribution, across the Martland Park and Kitt Green estates, with the bodyshops and workshops between them.
Each of those Wigan processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Martland Park units to the one-bench Wigan workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Wigan and the rest of Greater Manchester it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Steam, flour-dust and mist extraction across the Kitt Green plant, the bakeries and the food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
VOC and particulate extraction on the plastics and moulding lines, where melt fume and dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Martland Park and Kitt Green units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Wigan 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 University Centre Wigan and Leigh College and the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Wigan
We are out under Wigan's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An industrial bakery and pastry plant in Wigan had the canopy hoods over its bulk flour drops fitted with the internal extraction baffles upside down, so the air was short-circuiting instead of pulling across the mixing line. We re-oriented the baffle blades the right way round, cleaned off a crust of encrusted raw dough and re-checked the face velocity. It passed once the baffles were corrected, holding a steady 0.55 metres per second across the mixing bowls. The pie smell was everywhere, and food-safe hairnets and metal-detectable earplugs were the rule on the floor.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Wigan 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 Martland Park 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 Wigan line.
Where exposure is in question - a food manufacturing 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.
On most Wigan sites - the Martland Park units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Wigan 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 Wigan duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Kitt Green 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 food manufacturing bay, an engineering and metal fabrication 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 Wigan 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.
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 Martland Park or a smaller Wigan 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 Martland Park 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 Martland Park units, term-time access at the Wigan 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 Wigan, but a Martland Park fabrication shop and a King Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Martland Park and Kitt Green, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.