Woodley · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Woodley workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Woodley
Woodley is a Berkshire town of around 35,000 people set between Reading and Twyford in the Wokingham borough, and its name is written into aviation history: from the airfield at Woodley Aerodrome, Phillips and Powis - later Miles Aircraft - built and first flew some six thousand civil and military aircraft between 1933 and 1962, and it was here in December 1931 that Douglas Bader lost both his legs in the crash he walked away from to fly Spitfires in the Battle of Britain.
Today it is a commuter town whose working economy runs on precision engineering, light manufacturing and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the industrial units along Headley Road East and out toward Loddon Bridge Road.
Every Woodley process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Headley Park plant to the single-bench Woodley units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Woodley employers and others across Berkshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres across the Headley Road East units, in a town whose engineering instinct runs straight back to the Miles Aircraft assembly lines and the Adwest engineering works that took over the old aerodrome factory.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, food units and production kitchens serving the Thames Valley, where humid air and fine dust have to be drawn off before they settle.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Woodley joinery and cabinet shops, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Headley Park and Base 329 units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Woodley bodyshops and the repair units off Loddon Bridge Road. 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 laboratories and technology firms of the Thames Valley corridor between Woodley and Reading, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Woodley
We are out under Woodley's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
At a much-loved vehicle workshop in Woodley, airflow at the weld-fume extraction points had fallen since the last test, pointing to a slipping fan drive belt. We took benchmark readings, watched capture at each hood with smoke and dealt with an unsealed joint. The LEV passed on re-test across the exhaust extraction points, readings and a report left for the file. We arranged a recurring six-monthly clean to keep it in check.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Woodley 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 Headley 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 Woodley line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision 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.
On most Woodley sites - the Headley 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 Woodley 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 Woodley duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Base 329 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Headley Park and Base 329, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Berkshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Woodley 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.
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 Headley Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Headley Park or a smaller Woodley 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 Woodley, but a Headley Park fabrication shop and a Hurricane Way canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Headley Park unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
In 1939 the Phillips and Powis factory at Woodley installed Britain's first moving assembly line for aircraft, turning out Miles Master trainers along Headley Road East, and after the aerodrome closed the site passed to the Adwest engineering group. That precision-engineering instinct still runs through Woodley's machine shops and light-manufacturing units, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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