Street Lighting Petition

[Phillyo]

4 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

If you going to put shades on them, you may aswell take them all down as they will serve no purpose....simples....👍😀

Hmmm not really. A shade just directs the light in the 'wanted' direction rather than up or outwards thereby wasting light/energy for no reason. Also adds to sky glow and light pollution. I don't think taking them all down is really the same as putting a shade on them do you?

Edited December 15, 2020 by Phillyo
typo

[Ags]

Have you ever seen a street light with a shade? The street light next to my garden used to shine right in my eyes ruining stargazing. Now it has a shade so it still illuminates the street perfectly well but does not pollute my garden. 

[Seelive]

A lot of the lights in my street are now fitted with shades, I suspect mainly to prevent them illuminating peoples bedrooms. Unfortunately the light that partially illuminates my garden doesn't have one but since my garden is well below street level, it would need a fairly large one and if one was fitted, I suspect the neighbour would just put up a 'security' light. At least it goes off between 23:30 and 05:30.

[Stuart1971]

1 hour ago, Ags said:

Have you ever seen a street light with a shade? The street light next to my garden used to shine right in my eyes ruining stargazing. Now it has a shade so it still illuminates the street perfectly well but does not pollute my garden. 

Well, no. As I can’t see any lights from my garden....no problems at all.....I am lucky that way...just have to keep an eye on idiots trying to get over the fence and pinch my kit, under the cover of complete darkness..... 😂😂

 

[Pompey Monkey]

1 hour ago, Phillyo said:

Hmmm not really. A shade just directs the light in the 'wanted' direction rather than up or outwards thereby wasting light/energy for no reason. Also adds to sky glow and light pollution. I don't think taking them all down is really the same as putting a shade on them do you?

This is exactly what they do in La Palma, and the effect is a bit surreal:

All the streetlights are shaded to direct the light down (by law), so if you are near, or in a village, it is quite possible to get dazzled when in line of sight to one. However, turn a corner into the shade and it's dark enough for you not to see where you are. The sky is absolutely incredible, so directing the light downwards actually really improves things.

[Ags]

Another point is horizontal glare makes it harder to see - instead of seeing the illuminated road and pavement, all you can see is the dazzling light itself. So shaded light provide better quality more usable illumination. Lights with shades can also use the shades to reflect the light down (instead of leaking away into outer space) so they are more energy efficient.

[RobertI]

I think anything that raises awareness of the effect of street light pollution has to be a good thing. Will sign the petition and any petition like it. 
 

On the subject of crime, my very well lit estate is not immune from burglaries, especially around Christmas. My neighbours have shared their CCTV footage of groups who work their way through the estate breaking into cars - they know the CCTV is there, they know they are in full view, they just don’t care. And at 3am they know they are safe, lights off or on, as pretty much everyone is in bed!  
 

EDIT: Just signed petition. Only 269 signatures - a long way to go!

Edited December 16, 2020 by RobertI

[Ships and Stars]

I've signed it. We live in a dark part of town due to a couple of factors, the primary reason being me repeatedly asking local businesses to turn off their 12 (yes, 12) rear LED lights after they close. They used to stay on ALL night, and no one can see them except us. The streetlights in town near us have hoods, and it helps quite a lot to reduce overall town LP, though off is better of course.

Crime-wise, I find when it's totally dark, people stick to the other streets and don't wander down our lane which ends on private property anyway. It's usually to use the toilet after filling up at the local pub  When the lights used to stay on it invited people to wander down in our direction.

Now that it's dark here, I set up a series of small hidden motion sensors around our property. They are linked via radio frequency (no wifi needed) to a handheld receiver I keep by my desk or bed that gently chimes when the motion sensor is tripped, so if anyone does come onto our property at night, I am immediately alerted. I simply mute the receiver or turn it off when out doing astro, so my wife doesn't go bonkers! It works extremely well and no false alarms.

If my receiver does go off and I see some rogue villain lurking outside, I have a high mounted 4000 lumen LED floodlight (downward pointing of course!) I manually switch on for a few seconds to blast the intruders, then I switch it back off so they lose all dark adaptation 🤣 They know they've been clocked after this and leave for the normality of the high street. This is a very rare event.

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by Ships and Stars

[reezeh]

On 15/12/2020 at 14:30, Davey-T said:

If you have no security lighting to light the burglars way and they trip on a loose paving stone they may sue you for insufficient illumination 😂

Dave

Post a warning sign on the gate:

BEWARE OF THE DARK

 

Sorted! 

[nephilim]

I'm lucky enough to live in the North Pennines AONB & our village has just one street light at the very end of the village, we all have to use headtorches to get around at night.

Crime isn't an issue here at all but that's possibly because the village is in the middle of nowhere.

[F15Rules]

I've just signed 👍..

Street lights are just one part of the problem..unneeded, undirected industrial estate lights are a menace. I'd like to see all such lights required by law to have shades fitted at the point of installation.

For those who don't understand what shades on lights are...they are covers that sit on top of the light, sometimes to one side of the light, with the purpose being to protect people against night light intrusion and sleep deprivation, and to preserve as much of the natural night sky as possible, whilst still providing adequate downward directed light to allow passers by to see and walk safely.

Sadly, the current situation is currently heavily weighted in favour of unnecessary, wasteful and unwanted artificial light.. the clue is in the term Light Pollution.

Dave

[geoflewis]

Just signed the petition - I currently don't have a significant street light problem as I live on the outskirts of a rural village with no street lights in the immeditate vicinity, however, LAs should still be encouraged, if not required, to instal shades on any newly installed street lights, as the light domes from the nearby towns continue to increase.

Edited December 17, 2020 by geoflewis

[Andy ES]

The council has just replaced the street light on a path at the back of my garden.

I have gone from the usual orange glow to “ Is the light working?” 

Yes it is but because is LED with a proper shade all the light goes down where it’s needed, when you walk underneath it. A massive improvement.

I suppose it’s a start. 

 

[jock1958]

Petition signed! 
Contacted my local council more than 18 months ago about the bright LED light outside my house and got to say they were more than helpful in replacing it with a much dimmer version with an adjustable black plastic deflector.

Couple of pics below of what we used to have and what we have now (note deflector fitted around LED light)

Edited December 18, 2020 by jock1958

[F15Rules]

1 hour ago, jock1958 said:

Petition signed! 
I contacted my local council more 18 months ago about the bright LED light outside my house and got to say they were more than helpful in replacing it with a much dimmer light with an adjustable black plastic deflector.

Couple of pics below of what we used to have and what we have now (note deflector fitted around LED light)

That's great!!

Now, why can't all councils specify that 2nd design as the standard, not as the exception?

They could put this in their tenders for lighting provision..these contracts can be for 100s, if not 1000s of lights, worth huge sums of money - so it's just a matter of being clear in the tender specs as to what is required, then letting the competitive tender process do it's work. Good commissioning delivers good outcomes - but bad commissioning sadly delivers what all too often we see in our towns and cities today..

Dave

[Saganite]

Petition signed....

[Cozzy]

there is only 286 signed up! thought there might have been a lot more, but Heyho.

Petition signed....

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Signed

Steve

[Andy ES]

Signed, 288 signatures just now

[SteveNickolls]

Just signed, but at 289 signatures it will need a lot more to sign to get the government to even respond to it, here's hoping.

Thanks for the heads up.

Cheers,
Steve

[wulfrun]

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Now, why can't all councils specify that 2nd design as the standard, not as the exception?

You really need to ask? Every chance it's down to £

[F15Rules]

16 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

You really need to ask? Every chance it's down to £

Yes, it was a rhetorical question..of course it's down to money.. having worked most of my life in tendering for high value publicly financed contracts, they have mostly only been unit price driven, whatever they might say about looking at true value for money in terms of "whole contract life costs".

But we are entering a new world now, where environmental responsibility and sustainability will HAVE to drive procurement far more than ever before..let's hope we will soon see more truly sustainable and sensible public investment in the welfare of our planet and all its citizens (not just the human ones!).

Dave

[Scooot]

2 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Yes, it was a rhetorical question..of course it's down to money.. having worked most of my life in tendering for high value publicly financed contracts, they have mostly only been unit price driven, whatever they might say about looking at true value for money in terms of "whole contract life costs".

But we are entering a new world now, where environmental responsibility and sustainability will HAVE to drive procurement far more than ever before..let's hope we will soon see more truly sustainable and sensible public investment in the welfare of our planet and all its citizens (not just the human ones!).

Dave

Despite the Police Report showing no evidence of increased crime and saving in excess of £300k per year, Essex Council abandoned their Part-Night lighting. When I complained Basildon Council told me they’d “campaigned on the issue of getting the lights back on to address the real concerns of residents who live here.”

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by Scooot

[lukebl]

The main problem is that the VAST, I mean VAST, majority of people either don't care about excessive night-time lighting, or worse, they actually prefer it.

I hate to be cynical, but it is a battle we won't win.

[Scooot]

21 minutes ago, lukebl said:

The main problem is that the VAST, I mean VAST, majority of people either don't care about excessive night-time lighting, or worse, they actually prefer it.

I hate to be cynical, but it is a battle we won't win.

I tend to agree. It should be a separate amount on Council Tax bills, at least everyone would know how much is being wasted.