Light pollution and where you stand if you feel it's a nuisance to you.

What can be done about a perceived light nuisance?

There have been a number of questions about light pollution with some recent developments, especially along Manchester road.

Although complaints have been put into both the borough council's representative and our locally elected councillors, it's still unclear where they stand, as the reports from the residents affected suggests that no change to the light levels have been made.

In fact the problem appears to be getting worse, due to further developments using exactly the same model as the first offending structure.

I have taken a look as to what the law/statute and government code of practise advise regarding light pollution and what constitutes a statuary nuisance in English law.


The first publication I found was guidance to councils in the following link:

 Artificial-light-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

Essentially what qualifies as a nuisance can be summed up in the following:


For the artificial light to count as a statutory nuisance it must do one of the following:

• unreasonably and substantially interfere with the use or enjoyment of a home or other premises.
• injure health or be likely to injure health.

If they agree that a statutory nuisance is happening, has happened or will happen in the future, councils must serve an abatement notice. This requires whoever’s responsible to stop or restrict the light. The notice will usually be served on the person responsible but can also be served on the owner or occupier of the premises.

Swindon borough council recognises their responsibility to the public and have a webpage where a complaint can be submitted online, which I have included in the following link:

Environmental_problems/356/report_an_artificial_light_nuisance

They have noted the following ETA with regard to a submitted complaint:

All incoming complaints are screened by an officer who will contact you within 5 days, sooner if your complaint is judged to be particularly serious.



With regard to the law I have found the following links:

This is from the; Environmental Protection act 1990, chapter 43, part iii, section 79 subsection 1.fb

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/43/section/79


What the council is expected to do under the law is covered under the following link:

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/43/section/80


Here is some additional reading I found relating to this issue.

www.britastro.org/dark-skies/pdfs/JPEL2006_08.pdf

PollutionControl-LightPollution/Light-Pollution-Booklet