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Council taking the micky

spaceboy

By spaceboy
in The Astro Lounge

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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The council are coming out Monday to fix the timer so the light doesn't stay on in the day. :) Only told them Friday ..... quick enough to respond to that though W******. They said they would ring back once thats done. If nothing is mentioned about the light Shields then I will tape up the one side. If it fixes the problem and saves me the humiliation and time wasted being ignored then I'm happy to pay the £3 for the tape. How I'm going to do it in a discreet manner is another matter.

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ChrisEdu

ChrisEdu

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Hmm... this has got me thinking. There is a garage / car showroom across a couple of roads from the front of my property. They have a big, lit hoarding directly facing my home. It's really annoying and quite a nuisance, especially now we have an upstairs! I think I might contact them to see if they can do something about their sign. Even if the lights went off at 10pm it would be better than having it glaring away all night. :) Then I can make a start on the council about the street lights!

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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Without Prejudice And For Informational Purposes *cough*

Liking this idea but unfortunately our lights are on timers not sensors :)

Black tape is the method for sure. Council are obviously not interested and even if the were it is going to be well in to the season before they do some thing about it so it's just easier if I sort it.

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pastiche

pastiche

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I am just waiting for a really dark night then I am going for the tape method.

Good thinking about the clean with the meths so I will do that as well. The trouble is, I should really do it to at least three lights. How am I going to do this without looking suspicious?

Any suggestions?

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hunterknox

hunterknox

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Hmm... this has got me thinking. There is a garage / car showroom across a couple of roads from the front of my property. They have a big, lit hoarding directly facing my home. It's really annoying and quite a nuisance, especially now we have an upstairs! I think I might contact them to see if they can do something about their sign. Even if the lights went off at 10pm it would be better than having it glaring away all night. :) Then I can make a start on the council about the street lights!

As I understand it lighting may be classed as an external modification which would require planning permission. It's worth a courteous word with the showroom first though, but after that it's worth asking the council about...

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ChrisEdu

ChrisEdu

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As I understand it lighting may be classed as an external modification which would require planning permission. It's worth a courteous word with the showroom first though, but after that it's worth asking the council about...

Ironically, tonight I've noticed, at least at the moment, they are not on! :D

Unfortunately, neither was my driveway light as I reversed up, catching the wing mirror and busting the casing! Can't believe it - order an expensive scope and then go and bust something on the car!:) Needless to say, I am not too happy at the moment, depsite said lights being off. :(

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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Can't believe it - order an expensive scope and then go and bust something on the car!:)

It's always the way. I was watching a program on TV the other day about Zen Buddhists. They have to carry a cup of water to a shrine several meters away down steps etc. They have to do this with out spilling a drop. The idea of this mediative exercise is to concentrate the mind on holding the cup and not thinking of the water in the cup. The reason being is if they think of the water in the cup and that they shouldn't spill it the chances are more likely that they will indeed spill it.

You have just purchased a new scope leaving you in a less favorable financial position to have any miss haps. This is obviously in the minds subconscious and as a result through trying not to cause a mis hap one has inevitably come about. Another analogy can be when a person is trying too hard they often make mistakes.

If you car is over 6 years old I'm sure you would pick up a mirror from a scrap yard for £10-£15. If it newer eBay will be your best bet. Unless your lucky you may have to invest a little time in spraying it the colour of your car it will be no doubt cheaper than a body shop or buying new.

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  • 3 months later...
spaceboy

spaceboy

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For anyone who can be bothered to hear my wining on about these dam st lights here is my latest update. I spoke to my local MP and got fobbed off. At wits end I jumped up the offending st lamp and tapped up the sides with black cloth tape. The improvement was shocking to the point I often found my self tripping up the steps into the garden. £2 for a roll of tape 5 minutes of hanging of a street light and my observing had been improved no end and young girls can still walk the streets safely under a perfectly well lit path. Now even though I had pursued Environmental health, the council & MP's for 7-8 months asking for some thing to be done about the light with nothing but :bs: in reply ending up having to do some thing about it myself, the tape I put around the light remained on the light for only 6 weeks before it's now mysteriously disappeared. :D:) AND what rubs salt further into the wound is the ______ thing still comes on it the day time :(

For me the st light is no longer the nuisance but the dumb _____ who are not listening to the tax payer, wasting tax payers money in a time of financial crisis and robbing me of having any quality time enjoying my hobby. They now the st light comes on in the day, that it is causing me a nuisance by lighting up my garden at night and there are two other st lights lighting the path yet they send someone out not to resolve the stray light issue or to fix the light so it isn't wasting electricity in the day but rather to take a bit of tape of the sides. I wouldn't mind but I'd like to bet in these days of "health and safety" they had to hire in a cherry picker and 2 guys to do it.:)

Exhausted by the stupidity of it all TBH and give up. :(

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michaelmorris

michaelmorris

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It sounds to me that your local authority has a really poor systems for telling complainants what is going on and an even worst system for actually dealing with the problem. I work for a central government agency and I can tell you that if I dealt with a problem in this manner I would be disciplined.

I would write to the your local councillors and local MP and fore warn them that you will be going to the press and local radio station about the issue. Give them 14 days notice. If it it isn't sorted go the local press and local radio stations.

Another tactic might be to put in a freedom of information request and ask for copies of all records pertaining to the lights in question and to your complaint(s) about them. I would tell them that the information you require should include (but not be restricted to) copies all correspondence, e mails, complaint logs, records of site visits and all associated paperwork. They are legally obliged to give you access to all this information. Failure to do so or to deliberately or negligently withhold information is an offence. This may embarass them into getting something done.

If all else fails, put in a complaint to the local authority ombudsman and write to Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles.

In all these correspondence, I would make sure that you keep it factual and polite. From my experience, equal measures of humour, exasperation and civility will go a long way to getting people on your side.

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Telrad

Telrad

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I feel your pain. I understand that you have suffered the woes of bureaucratic burden in particular from your local authority. I sympathise with your plight entirely, and feel that you've probably taken every route possible in order to remedy the situation.

I had a similar problem with light pollution and have built black-out blinds and used several other means in order to preserve the darkness and prevent these obtrusive lights from ruining my observing. I wrote to the council regarding this issue six months ago and they wrote back within two weeks informing me that all the lights were earmarked to be changed to low-sodium anyway. The council have changed all the lights in our area, this has made a difference but not a huge one; I was lucky I guess, having not to pursue it to the extent you have; but every local authority is different however and they I feel that prehaps given the proceedure of dealing with your complaints as your council have been to date that Michael might be right, and it is worth taking it further, the local authority ombudsmanand the Secretary of State might be your next move?

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glowjet

glowjet

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I think you will find your shade was removed when they did a routine service of the light in question, which they have to do at fixed intervals. I did not say this but I would put your shade back and let them ( the Council Lighting Dept ) complain to you, once the boot is on the other foot you might have a better chance of coming to a satisfactory solution. Oh, and it might be helpful, in time to come, if you can put down on paper all the times and dates you have contacted the various parties concerned and had a negative response, I recommend this from past experience :)

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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Can't possibly be routine maintenance as the dam thing still lights up in the day. As for taping up the light again that isn't going to happen. They don't look that high but when your balancing on that little pole hanging out the side it's a scary experience. Not to mention for some reason the actual top bendy part and light was wobbling about every where while I was doing it. I'm not the fearless teenager I once was and the heart was a racing that either me or the light was going to end up crashing to the ground.

I have shuttered up the fences as best I can to block the light but the one giving me the most bother is just to high as the path leads up a slight incline making the lamp considerably higher than it would be on level ground. In the summer a tree blocks most of the light but then of course summer nights are shorter :)

My post was just to gas of if anything as I have admitted defeat. They are well aware of the problem as I have told enough people at the council yet all there priorities lye with allowing it to awash my garden with stray light. I can only assume they consider it a high risk spot ???? I can only hazard a guess as the path is on a slight incline and ice often occurs during the winter months when the nights are longer that they feel the need to make this a well lit area to avoid any court cases ???? Still looked well lit to me even with the tape on but then I'm bias. BUT they can't even be bothered to come up with an excuse. They just keep on telling me the issue has been resolved :(:)

Well "such is life" I will just have to put up with it in the hope it breaks beyond repair.

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nicnac

nicnac

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i will congratulate you on getting not one but seven replies!

all those calls for you to approach your MP, dont bother, all i got was party political slurry (in verbal form)

i found a schematic online on how to make an EM emitter, just strong enough to blow fuses at close range (a few inches) but i dont fancy posting a link if you get my meaning :)

a decent search engine should find it though :(

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