Not motor related, though maybe Volvo owners could now face life imprisonment.
This press release just came in. Note the words, "Under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, light pollution will be treated as a criminal offence."
Just like murder, rape and doing 34mph on a 30 zone.
You leave your lights on to keep the burglars away you now go down for 20 years.
HJ
EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE Monday 20th March 2006
Contact: Sandra Issar - 0207 664 3333
COUNCILS LAUNCH THREE POINT PLAN CRACKDOWN ON LIGHT POLLUTION
With new laws cracking down on light pollution coming into force next month, Councils leaders have today published a three point plan on how people can help to see the stars again .
From April 6, new laws mean that anyone who finds artificial light a nuisance will be able to seek help from their local council. Any residents who fail to comply with the new law could face fines of up to £5,000.
Under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, light pollution will be treated as a criminal offence. Environmental health officers across the country will be on call to provide advice, offer mediation and serve abatement orders if necessary.
The Local Government Association has today launched a three point plan to help residents crack down on light pollution. This involves
· Recording the problem with a detailed note of times and dates of nuisance and if possible, take photographs for evidence.
· Speaking to the light owner and see if a compromise can be achieved.
· If a compromise can't be reached then to contact their local council. The local environmental health officer will then take a decision as to whether the lighting is in fact a nuisance and if so, request that it's abated. If the order is ignored, the local authority may begin legal action.
Cllr David Sparks, chairman of the LGA's Environment Board said:
"For too many years councils have been powerless to get involved with householder's complaints about nuisance lighting. An intrusive light which puts pay to a good night's sleep can have a detrimental affect on a person's health. Now councils will be in a position to put a stop to such problems.
"The failure to tackle light pollution has left a blackout of Britain's skies and this has left many children completely oblivious of the wanders of the universe. Clamping down on this menace will encourage youngsters to become the next Patrick Moores.
"By taking simple steps to prevent light pollution people can also save money by being more energy efficient. Everybody has a responsibility to help save the planet, so the introduction of the new laws result in a win-win situation for everybody."
Ian Morison of Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Society of popular Astronomy welcomed the move and said:
"Its very sad that so few young people have had the chance to see how beautiful the night sky can be - the arc of the Milky Way under dark skies is truly magical. This initiative will make our skies darker an enable everybody, not just amateur astronomers, to have more appreciation of our Universe."
Meanwhile, councils around the country have been pioneering different methods to help reduce light pollution. These include:
South Tyneside Council is leading the country with 'Light-It' a £63m brighter, clearer white light (known as Cosmopolis) PFI scheme. All lighting columns more than 10 years old will be replaced with new columns and modern white lighting (18,500 columns out of 23,600 in the borough).
Contact: David Crosby: 0191 424 7381
Hampshire County Council - Have been introducing highly reflective road bollards to replace the more traditional illuminated versions.
Have updated street lighting so lanterns are shielding to avoid light spilling onto adjacent properties.
Contact: Fiona Holgate, Media Office, 01962 847 115
Norfolk County Council - Recycling centres use sensitive lighting and CCTV rather than permanent dusk-to-dawn lighting at its 20 centres. Its won a CPRE award.
Contact: Steven Reilly, Media Officer, 01603 222716
Sunderland City Council - 31,000 street lighting columns and 8,000 highway signs are being replaced. The builder they're working with has been awarded a certificate from the British Astronomical Association for helping to produce light pollution in Sunderland.
Contact: Norman Tween, Communications Officer, 0191 553 1646
Devon County Council - A new style zebra crossing where the white sections of the traditional black and white poles are constantly lit. It's brighter than the old system but causes less light pollution.
Contact: Pam Newby, Media PR Service, 01392 383290
Sheffield City Council - 67,000 new street columns will replace the existing equipment. Illuminated signs, bollards and beacons will also be replaced.
Contact: Warwick Toone, Media Team, 0114 273 5767
Leicester City Council - White street lighting is replacing traditional yellow bulbs along Church Gate, Gravel St and Braunstone Gate. This is primarily to improve CCTV coverage and deter crime but has had the added bonus of reducing light pollution.
Contact: Debra Reynolds, Media Office, 0116 252 6398
ENDS
Contact: Lynne Eveson or Sandra Issar, LGA media office on 0207 663 3333.
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..to help implement this new patrols are to be introduced.
Uniform will be a white helmet with A.R.P. letters painted on.
"oi, put that light out" will be the offical warning a source from the Ministry Of Darkness quoted this morning.
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Re ARO: we've had to fit black-out curtains to keep the light level down enough to sleep at night, thanks to inconsiderate neighbours. Security lighting could be shrouded, without it giving a useless, wasted spread in every direction. On a motoring note, one light shines directly up our drive, so reversing in is a pain. Now we'll be able to do something about the neighborhood "watch tower" lights.
BTW, they only help burglars to find their way around. Its no real deterrent.
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Agreed. Near us on a sharp S bend a house owner has installed high intensity lights which shine directly into drivers eyes as they reach the bend.
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One of these spontaneous traffic calming measures peoiple keep coming up with. Nothing calmer than an inverted vehicle with a dead driver.
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I thoroughly approve of this legislation. I am sure that Stargazer will too. Like most other offences that can be criminal offences, I have no doubt that this will be dealt with by a friendly letter from the Council, with threats of prosecution only coming after long periods of infringement.
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The very low cost of 500W+ outdoor halogen lights mean that there are a lot of inconsiderate people who festoon their property with them - in the belief it deters burglars. If you go into a linen shop these days they all seem to be selling 'blackout curtains' (dense lining curtains) which probably means its a widespread problem.
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Year ago, in old black and white Ealing comedies, old washerwomen with scarves tied around their hair used to mutter disapproval of something or other and screech "there ought to be a law against it".
Well now there is. Against just about everything.
And the fines they raise are being used to fund Britain's ever increasing army of public servants.
HJ
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It doesn't really affect householders, but I bet the guy from Jodrell Bank isn't very happy about the 'feature' lighting on the Runcorn/Widnes bridge - there are dozens of big floodlights which basically just shine straight up in air.
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SFAIK Jodrell bank is a radio telescope and is unaffected by light of any sort from anywhere!
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>>"The failure to tackle light pollution has left a blackout of
Britain's skies and this has left many children completely oblivious of the wanders of the universe. Clamping down on this menace will encourage youngsters to become the next Patrick Moores.>>
The greatest cause of "light pollution" in towns and cities is street lighting.
No doubt the Jobsworth have overlooked this simple fact...:-)
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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>>And the fines they raise are being used to fund Britain's ever increasing army of public servants
There are a lot of people working very hard in public services, trying to make things better for the communities in which they live.
But stuff like this makes them all look stupid.
Lee -- Without bills, magazines and junk mail, there is no mail
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HJ - whose press relaease was it?
Full text of the act is here www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2005/20050016.htm . You might think the clauses on gating orders and on repairing vehicles in the road are of more immediate concern in a motoring forum.
Lighting provisions appear to be a tightening of earlier legislation.
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HJ did point out a motoring connection, albeit tenuous...:-)
But it is his website and he who pays the piper calls the tune.....
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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"there ought to be a law against it". Well now there is - against just about everything ..
I sympathise with your basic instinct, HJ. The point is that if everyone behaved considerately and 'socially' we would not need the silly legislation. Unfortunately we all know that many people don't, and it seems that number is growing. We have to hope any new laws are used with discretion, and act as some degree of deterrent. If that doesn't happen there will have to be a few prosecutions "pour encouager les autres".
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I thoroughly approve of this legislation. I am sure that Stargazer will too. Like most other offences that can be criminal offences, I have no doubt that this will be dealt with by a friendly letter from the Council, with threats of prosecution only coming after long periods of infringement.
Mapmaker, totally agree!
About time too....Most of my observing is at overseas observatories with very strict light pollution control, however I also do a lot of public understanding of science and it is amazing the number of school kids who have never really noticed the moon (hence lunacy?) let alone the planets or stars! I also run open nights for schools at a small telescope and have no problem with properly controlled lighting even in the centre of Oxford, but one badly placed floodlight can wreck everything.
On a motoring note, many of the villages around me do not have streetlights (by choice) but some individuals have multiple 500W lights directly illuminating oncoming vehicles...accidents have been reported to the police caused by these lights. The shadows caused by such lights enable easy unobserved access to the houses in question.
Some local sports centres have floodlit all weather pitches and one of them is fine, on a misty night you can see that the beam of light is properly shielded and directed at the pitch with no overspill, one however (Chipping Norton) has one light in a bank with is bright enough to dazzle car drivers approaching down a B road from several miles away and another that is aimed directly down the access road so you are blinded when turning into the sports centre....just when youneed to see pedestrians! Letter have been written to the centre management with no effect so far.
Sorry to disagree with you HJ
StarGazer
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My question is how has it been allowed to get so bad. The chief cause of light pollution is badly designed street lighting, most of which has been brought in for a safety reason. According to HJ's original post much of which is now going to be changed at vast expense.
I can see the sense of having some regulation of badly sighted lighting on private property affecting others, but this is only a very small fraction of total light pollution.
Surely in this context we should also consider car headlights, especially high beam) as light pollution. Car lights are brighter today than they used to be and are also more likely to dazzle another driver, let alone the night sky.
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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South Tyneside Council is leading the country with 'Light-It' a £63m brighter, clearer white light (known as Cosmopolis) PFI scheme. All lighting columns more than 10 years old will be replaced with new columns and modern white lighting (18,500 columns out of 23,600 in the borough). Contact: David Crosby: 0191 424 7381
I can remember when all the old white lamps were replaced with yellow.
Saying that, I hope they scrap the lot. I loate the horrible blacky/orange colour the sky is now.
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>> South Tyneside Council is leading the country with 'Light-It' a £63m brighter, clearer white light (known as Cosmopolis) PFI scheme. All lighting columns more than 10 years old will be replaced with new columns and modern white lighting (18,500 columns out of 23,600 in the borough). >> >> Contact: David Crosby: 0191 424 7381 I can remember when all the old white lamps were replaced with yellow. Saying that, I hope they scrap the lot. I loate the horrible blacky/orange colour the sky is now.
Someone somewhere is having a laugh: that's £3400 per column. Mare's rough guide to building costs reckons about £1500 for a brand new streetlamp on a brand new road.
I'll do it for £62 million guv....
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The £63m figure quoted is the total value of the PFI, not the element of it that refers to this specific type of lighting replacement.
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the wanders of the universe.
I'd always thought things moved within it in quite an organised way...
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Of course, if these people were serious, all flood lighting of public buildings would stop. So no lights on Edinburgh Castle or Buck House, or the Hs of Parliament etc.
But I forget these regulations don't apply to our rulers- elected or otherwise.
madf
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Of course, if these people were serious, all flood lighting of public buildings would stop. So no lights on Edinburgh Castle or Buck House, or the Hs of Parliament etc. But I forget these regulations don't apply to our rulers- elected or otherwise. madf
Not at all, properly designed lighting (flood from the top down rather than upwards with a large overspill into the sky) is more effective, costs less to run and doesnt cause light pollution.
For security lighting a couple of well placed 60W lamps can be more effective that a single 500W flood....better illumination, lower running costs, fewer shadows, less dazzle.
When I was working at a large observatory in Australia, we had a problem with one of the floodlights used to illuminate a rugby pitch at night. The floodlights were twice as powerful as they needed to be, were poorly mounted on badly designed posts with inadequate shielding and not all directed downwards.
When in use the floodlights cast a shadow on the outside of the telescope dome at a distance of 30km! We brought the town council to visit on a clear night and demonstated this to them, we then paid for a lighting engineer to assess the installation and make recomendations....he cut the illumination requirements by a factor of 2, improved the lightlevels at pitch level, reduced running costs and all by altering the angle of lighting, increasing the height of the poles and turning off alternate lamps.
There is far too much poorly designed lighting around, if we can reduce light pollution but increase light levels where they are required and reduce glare then road safety will be improved.
StarGazer
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My beef is with the waste of energy and money - lights left on all night at Kingsmead House and the Odd Down park and ride that i know of in Bath.
We are guilty of leaving the loo light on, for the kids you understand....
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I've noticed some new street lights are less orange and more bright than the old ones,must be a new type.Re security lights I do not understsnd why,having installed the thing,someone then decides to aim it down the street instead of onto their own property,I can think of quite a few 'blinders'.Now,where is my air rifle?
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Try moving to Stockport. The councils latest money saving wheeze is to turn off every other streetlight between 12:30am and 6:30am! Of course, they will no doubt have to pay someone to turn them off.
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It seems like a good idea to me, and I'd guess you don't get 20 years for a first offence.
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and when there is an upsurge in burglary (criminal offence but community service orders if you are violent), we'll complain about inadequate street lighting/we need more security light.
"Sorry sir , all our police men/women are out arresting light offenders"...
madf
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"Sorry sir , all our police men/women are out arresting light offenders"...
At least they can carry them back to the station.
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