Wisbech · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wisbech workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wisbech
Wisbech is the Capital of the Fens in Cambridgeshire, a town of around 32,000 on the River Nene, known for its Georgian North Brink and Peckover House and its role as a Fenland food-processing and agricultural hub.
The signature trade is food and produce - the pet-food and food manufacturing, the fresh-produce processing and packing, and the agricultural engineering and cold-store logistics - across the Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate and Cromwell Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Wisbech 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 Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Wisbech 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 Wisbech employers and others across Cambridgeshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Steam, grease-laden cooking vapour and process-fume extraction across the cooking, drying and pouching lines of the food and pet-food producers, a major employer of the town, where the process heat and grease load the ductwork and need capture at source.
Wash-down mist, chill-store condensate and cleaning-vapour extraction across the salad, root-veg and fruit packing halls of the Fenland produce cluster, where the process moisture needs capture proven.
Weld-fume, grinding-dust and forklift-exhaust extraction across the agri-machinery and refrigerated-distribution units, where the workshops and charging bays each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate and Cromwell Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Wisbech 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 College of West Anglia and the North Cambridgeshire Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Wisbech
We are out under Wisbech's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A pet-food manufacturing plant in Wisbech had a steam-and-grease extraction over a cooking-and-pouching line pulling weak because the ducting above it had loaded with cooked-on residue. We ran the capture checks on the sound sections and logged the fouling. It failed on the restricted duct and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the clean and remedial run. The line ran hot and greasy, so the test was fitted around a wash-down shift.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Wisbech 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 Weasenham Lane 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 Wisbech line.
Where exposure is in question - a pet-food and 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.
For the great majority of Wisbech sites, from the Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate 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 Wisbech 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 Wisbech duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Cromwell Road Industrial Estate 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 pet-food and food manufacturing bay, a fresh-produce processing and packing 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 Wisbech 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 Weasenham Lane 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 Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate or a smaller Wisbech workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Wisbech, but a Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Market Place canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Pet-food and food manufacturing, fresh-produce processing and packing, agricultural engineering and logistics, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate and Cromwell Road Industrial Estate and across the wider Cambridgeshire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Weasenham Lane Industrial Estate and Cromwell Road Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cambridgeshire.
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