Another street light post

[ColB]

A couple of years ago the council installed new street lighting on my street. They installed the new lampposts in slightly different positions to the old ones resulting in one lamp shining into my back garden whereas it hadn't dont before. As it only affected less than a quarter of the garden, I have learned to live with it and avoid that part of the garden when observing.

This morning a local councellor paid a doorstep visit to ask if I had any concerns or whatever - so as I've seen a few posts on here recently about people writing to the council regarding lighting and getting things done (or not!), I mentioned the light. The bloke was actually quite understanding and took my details and said he would get back to me.

This is a picture of the lamp in question, I know very little (ok nowt) about street lighting so if anyone more knowledgable could indicate whether this design is dark sky friendly/energy efficient that might help my case if it developes into anything.

Cheers

Col

[WayBig]

2 years ago exactly the same thing happened to me, I've now got the exact same style of light, but my one is shining into my bedroom window.

Last week i contacted the council to ask for them put some shielding on it...waiting to see what happens.

Dont know how sky/enviro friendly the light it, but it's not sleep friendly!

[iamjulian]

Hadn't really noticed that the one diagonally opposite us shines directly into the front bedrooms. Was trying to get my daughter to sleep at 3am and had to go into a different room because I was being blinded by the street light. Completely pointless. Wrote to county council, who were interested, but said our lights were controlled by the parish council. Unfortunately the Parish council are rubbish and four weeks later, no reply.

Good luck with your light!

[Srbin]

I'm no engineer but it does look like a "full cut-off" model, so the there should be less scatter from it. Unfortunately, it looks like the new white light type which is harder to filter against and they're usually taller which means if its shining straight into your garden, it really is going to b****r things up for you. I'd ask for a shade to be put on it and argue that it shines into your house and keep you up all night. Normally if you mention astronomy, they think you weird. The CfDS has loads of advice on their website

[Beulah]

Ant: Removed please do not post again.

[ColB]

Thanks for the replies - it does seem that even though these lights are a modern type and direct most of their light downward, because they are taller the light still causes a nuisance. I'll wait to see if this bloke gets back to me in a week or two then start chasing it up. Thanks for the pointer to the CfDS site Srbin I'll definately check that out.

Cheers and Good luck

Col

[EA2007]

Looks like it will still shine light out at 180 degrees, slightly better than the one outside my house which have an ability to shine at about 240 degrees.

All the council need to do is purchase / or have designed ones that have a shade positioned around the light, that means the light shines downwards (where its needed!) and prevents rogue light, the ideal amount of light downshine should be around 55 degrees....... I think its been proven somewhere that at 60 degrees plus then streetlight hitting the floor doesn't provide ample enough lighting for people to see things.

[Starblazer]

Contacted the council, hopefully they will get onto it asap.

[onmehedson]

I don`t see what the fuss is about...it doesn`t look that bright to me..

[pete_l]

We had ours changed to this type a few years ago, too.

Although I didn't know of the changeover programme, I did have some detailed measurements of VLM (visual limiting magnitude) from my SQM. After the changeover I took some more measurements over a period of time. Although all the lights in my part of town (pop. 15,000) had been changed, there was no measurable difference in light pollution - at least nothing significant, given a nightly variation of +/- 0.25 magnitudes.

[jamie@bristol]

In my opinion, light pollution should be seen as a nuisance in the same way noise is. Its not just us with an urge to look up into the night sky who are affected, my Daughter had trouble sleeping because of poor lamp positioning, and her sleepless nights affected us all.

The Local Councils are useless, banging on about saving energy and moaning at us to be greener yet they continually waste electricity night after night by having these Lamps unshaded, when they could be using less energy by economically reflecting light.

I complained for weeks to get the lamp in question moved/changed and NEVER recieved any reply.

So i bought myself a Gas Charged air rifle and 'sorted' it myself. Its been out for ages now and if and when the council replace it, i'll shoot it again. Problem solved..

My daughter now sleeps better than she ever has, and i get uninterrupted views of the night sky. And for some strange reason (cant think why) the neighbours who used to look at me like a was some weirdo have now stopped and give me nods and the odd hello. Uncanny...

I know its NAUGHTY to take matters into your own hands but doing nothing about light pollution is CRIMINAL!

[Paxo]

Ask if a shield can be fitted to the rear of the light. We have just had something similar installed. A quick call to the sub-contract company in this case resulted in rear shields being fitted to 2 lights within 72 hours of the request, and it's made a heck of a difference. We had a similar situation, the new post was in a different position and about a metre higher.

Steve..

[jamie@bristol]

Sounds like a plan, ill look into it. Cheers

[Daryl]

We have our street lights turned off after midnight which makes for excellent viewing but ive read loads of people complaining about it so hope the council dont reverse the decision

[Daz1969]

I notice its one of those with the little sensor on top.

When the light is on shine one of the green laser type thingys at the sensor=it will think it is daytime and shut off the light, Check out youtube to see it in action:)

[kidlands]

Has anyone got a picture of a light 'shield'. My council says they cannot fit one to my type of street lamp but I'm not convinced.

They did put some tape on the back of the lens which I was grateful for but I'm still thinking they are ducking out.

[pritc]

--

[the_laughing_crow]

Genius

Ive actually got a friend who works at a council and deals with this sort of stuff. I'll ask him what the legislation is that deals with such "light trespass"

[Beulah]

We have our street lights turned off after midnight which makes for excellent viewing but ive read loads of people complaining about it so hope the council dont reverse the decision

Your council sounds like it has it's head screwed on right. Wish my local council was like that.

Why do people complain? Who is going to need outside light at 1am? Or do people actually like sleeping in an orangey gloom?

[Daryl]

Plenty of miserable people about who are only happy when they are complaining about something.

Flipping dark though, cant see the nose infront of your face

[vesper]

hey,

same, the street light hangs right in front of my bedroom window. I wouldn't mind so much but, sometimes my favourite time to stargaze is in the comforts of my bedroom window. I would do something about it, but I'm only a kid and mum keeps telling me to stop complaining and live with it. oh, and my personal favourite, street lights are for the benefit of the public. lol!

[kidlands]

vesper you have a very good case to throw at the council. If it baths your bedroom in light they have to do something. It worked for me, the light shines into my babies bedroom (any bedroom will do) and they came round in under a week to tape over the back of it.

steve

[vesper]

thanks steve,

if i can work it round mum then that could work

[Buzz Dark Night]

Hello

In our village in deepest Lincolnshire the Council erected some new street lights that shed more light into the skies than to the ground. I rang the Council and complained and a gang of men were out two days later adjusting them all to the effect that they cause virtually no light pollution in our village ............. result!!

Regards