Light pollution: Good results

[Venus_is_my_friend]

Two years ago I moved into a house with a white bulb street light behind it that shines in the garden.

I built a light shield made from an old fence panel cut in half, that rest on top of my other fence panels, which worked great.

Until I bought a CGEM and with my dobsonian mounted atop the eyepiece is too high the light shield to work.

So I decided it was time to contact the council. I was expecting this to take weeks to resolve, here is the time line.

Sunday 12:00 - E-mailled the council for the details of who looks after the street lights.

Monday 08:30 - Got a reply saying my details had been passed on to the company they use.

Tuesday 10:00 - Got a reply from the company asking for more details. Replied.

Tuesday 12:30 - Got a reply saying they would fit a light sheild. Replied asking how long it would take.

Tuesday 12:32 - Got told it would take until 22nd Jan at the latest, but he expected it to be done soon.

In less than 48 hours and in only three e-mails I had the issues sorted.

Now I am just waiting to see if it will be fully effective.

Thanks for reading,

Neil

[kirkster501]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Most encouraging.

I have such a light as well. Lets see how I get on with Rushcliffe Borough Council in Nottinghamshire, following your recipe !

[foundaplanet]

Wow, that's a result, good one.

That is how a council should perform... just a couple of e-mails and the job is sorted.

[kirkster501]

Not sure they have any obligation to pander to our hobby though to be honest. But we can try as Neil as done. And as I have just done

[floppygoose]

Even easier in Northampton - The council are turning the street lights off anyway as part of their public spending cuts. They won't need too many excuses to turn more off if people suggest it. Good for LP, but the locals are up in arms.

Phil

[foundaplanet]

Not sure they have any obligation to pander to our hobby though to be honest. But we can try as Neil as done. And as I have just done

Yes I agree, I mean in general without all the usual palarver..

[kirkster501]

Even easier in Northampton - The council are turning the street lights off anyway as part of their public spending cuts. They won't need too many excuses to turn more off if people suggest it. Good for LP, but the locals are up in arms.

Phil

Well, people are just going to have to deal with it. Cost cutting and green initiatives will drive the agenda, not peoples paranoia ! For once that works in our favour !

Similar to you in Northampton, our lights go off at 00:30 in Rushcliffe. But I am normally packing up by that time - young kids forces me to be a evening astronomer. So I need a certain light to be shielded.

[studdedsole]

Great result, Had a similar issue with a street lamp outside my house which switches automatically at 11pm anyway, but contacted the local council and they had a shield up within 2 days to re-direct the overspill. It seems more and more councils are happy to help with these issues these days and if you mention to them it is disturbing your sleep which is causing you health and welfare issues they take the matter very seriously.

[Venus_is_my_friend]

Here is the 'recipe' for success:-

I e-mailled this to my local councils general e-mail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am wondering who I contact in relation to light intrusion from public street lighting?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the company they use contacted me this is what I wrote to them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you very much for your quick reply.

I have a troublesome street light behind my house. I live on *INSERT ROAD NAME AND TOWN*. The street light is extremely bright and is intruding into my back bedroom and bathroom. We us this room for guests and despite some rather thick curtains the light can still be a problem with intruding in the room, people who have stopped the night have said it has put them off stopping again as they got a very disturbed sleep. It also shines into the bathroom and due to its design we are only able to have a shower curtain acting as a window. This makes relaxation in the bath rather difficult.

I am also a very keen astronomer and the light makes it impossible to do any astronomy from my back garden as it shines so brightly only a few bright stars can be seen when in its glow.

I was wondering what possible solutions there are available for this light?

Thank you for your time,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know it sounds a bit sappy and in place ass kissing but I figured it was the best way to get results. I also figured if I when at it from the Astronomy angle it might not get as much notice as if I went at it from the disturbed sleep angle.

I will say be careful about lying, as some people have said that the company has agreed to meet them at their house to assess the situation and if you say you sleep in the back bedroom and the get there and find a study they might be less likely to help.

I would assume that my council has given them the green light in advance to fit these to lights people complain about, as she never said "I need ask them" or anythign like that.

Good luck to all, I will let you know what it looks like when it is fitted.

Neil

[redneon]

Hmm. I'm really tempted to try this out myself.

Behind my back garden is a small road (almost an alleyway) then allotments and then fields. This would be great apart from on the road, about 10 doors down, there's an orange street lamp which is pain in the proverbial. There's been times I've almost been tempted to have an "accident" with a brick....

My 8 month old daughter's nursery is at the back of the house so I could say it's keeping her awake. Thing is, 10 doors is quite a distance, it's highly improbable. Also, Barnsley council are pretty much useless in every other respect so I don't think I'd get much of a response anyway.

[studdedsole]

Hmm. I'm really tempted to try this out myself.

Behind my back garden is a small road (almost an alleyway) then allotments and then fields. This would be great apart from on the road, about 10 doors down, there's an orange street lamp which is pain in the proverbial. There's been times I've almost been tempted to have an "accident" with a brick....

My 8 month old daughter's nursery is at the back of the house so I could say it's keeping her awake. Thing is, 10 doors is quite a distance, it's highly improbable. Also, Barnsley council are pretty much useless in every other respect so I don't think I'd get much of a response anyway.

You've nothing to lose by going for it, particularly go overboard on the "disrupted sleep for your young daughter" angle, they might carry out a survey of the disruption but this would likely involve an out of office hours monitor by an engineer, they may deem it more cost effective to just shield the lamp or even change the timer control. You've lost nothing if they say no. Good luck

ps - it helps if you can find out from the council who the Electrical Services Manager is and try and engage them by email rather than a pen pusher

[bennylee79]

Good job! I am having the same problem with a street light at the rear of my house at the moment. The light 'broke' a couple of months ago so when the lighting engineer came out to repair it he said the CB had burnt out (i've no idea how that may have happened ) but he was saying he could put a shield up and reposition the head to reduce the overspill into my garden, i asked him how long to do it and he said 5 minutes but he couldn't do it there and then as he needed a job number. So i rang the council whilst he was there but as usual red tape happened and i'm 2 months down the line. I ring the council twice a week for an update but they are telling my the are waiting for a quote from the contractor to see if it is finacially viable!! just hope it doesn't break in the meantime, that would be a shame.......

[studdedsole]

Here, this might help

[SnakeyJ]

Excellent result Neil, just shows what can be achieved by asking nicely - though to be honest, I would not expect the same degree of service/result from my Council but might just be encouraged to ask!

Bet you wish you'd done this two years ago !

[kirkster501]

Good templates there guys. A little cut and pasting may be done later..... !

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Venus_is_my_friend]

Excellent result Neil, just shows what can be achieved by asking nicely - though to be honest, I would not expect the same degree of service/result from my Council but might just be encouraged to ask!

Bet you wish you'd done this two years ago !

You have it spot on! I feel a bit stupid for not asking two years ago and just working around it, hopefully it will work. *fingers crossed*

[bomberbaz]

some good news stories coming out about LP, I will update you my own once I know more. Keep up the good work, its all in the name of global warming any isn't it fellas, cough

[Dave]

I live in Northamptonshire and they have failed to turn off the one that shines in my observatory. I have been trying for over 5 years to sort it out and had meetings with the local lighting department, but to no avail.

Looks like I am left with only two options, build a shroud to shield the dome, or move!

[studdedsole]

That's a real bummer Dave, I guess sometimes authorities won't listen to reason, I bet if the manager of the local lighting department were an astronomer they would be falling over themselves to help.

[Venus_is_my_friend]

It's so strange that my council passed my details on and it was sorted so easy but other council are just be awkward for what seems like no reason. Bunch of tossers.

[Demonperformer]

Dorset Council have announced that they will be switching off streetlights between midnight and 5am - with the exception of areas where there is a high risk of crime or cctv in operation.

Which would be great, except that Poole is a unitary authority and so it will not affect my garden.

That said, I wonder how many new lighthouses ... um I mean security lights ... will make an appearance ... Will their end result be worse than their first ... ?

[stem1989]

nothing more destructive than a badly placed street light... nothing a BB gun wont sort. Only joking lol

[SnakeyJ]

I live in Northamptonshire and they have failed to turn off the one that shines in my observatory. I have been trying for over 5 years to sort it out and had meetings with the local lighting department, but to no avail.

Looks like I am left with only two options, build a shroud to shield the dome, or move!

I was going to offer a third option:

Option 3 - I.77 webley vulcan (I can recall being grilled by the local bobby after several lights went down along our road - it wasn't me guv!)

Then stem1989 beat me to it! - though I reckon my near brush with the law was around 1982, PC Steven Tortse. In those days you had proper village bobbies with nothing better to do than keep a watchful eye on the youff. Not too long ago as he had a Honda CB200 motor bike, rather than traditional bike - not loud but with a destinctive whirr, which we could recognise at a fair distance.... they were the days!

[SnakeyJ]

Blooming heck - that might be the very one..

[Demonperformer]

Local news station going great guns on how streetlights being switched off will cause a crime wave and everyone falling over. This is the same program that was advocating 'getting out and looking at the stars' earlier in the week for Stargazing Live. If anyone in the Dorset area feels like joining the debate it is at https://www.facebook.com/BBCSouthToday.