INTRODUCTION

  I have been a serious amateur astronomer for the past 40 years and have been active in promoting good lighting practice over the past 10 years or so. My particular interest in astronomy has been imaging, first with photographic film and latterly with digital sensors. This has enabled me to collect a record of the increase in light pollution over the last 30 years. I am educated to degree level in chemistry and am employed as a technical manager in industry.

1.  What has been the impact of light pollution on UK astronomy?

  As a youngster starting out in astronomy it was easy for me to pick out the constellations from my back garden in Liverpool, some three miles from the city centre and also easily see the Milky Way on a summer evening. I still live in the same area only a mile from where I grew up but cannot do either of these things due to light pollution. I used to be able to see faint galaxies through a small telescope as a child, I now have to use sensitive CCD detectors with special image processing to "see" the very same galaxies.

  One could easily blame age related eyesight deterioration if it were not for the photographic records and careful database of these images I have kept. The photographs reveal that there has been a loss of perhaps two to three stellar magnitudes in the visibility of stars. The stellar magnitude scale is a calibrated scale well known to any astronomer. Each step being—2.5 times, so three magnitudes is some 16 times loss of visibility of the stars.

  The loss is significant if one considers that astronomy and my views of the night-time sky where what inspired me to enter science as a career. What will inspire future generations when there are no more stars to see from the back garden?

2.  Are current planning guidelines strong enough to protect against light pollution?

  Much of the loss of visibility has been due to road lighting and more recently due to the lighting up of the exterior of buildings due to eg historical interest, sports stadia and driving ranges. These amenities employ extremely high levels of illumination that can literally be seen for many miles away at night and destroy any chance of seeing even the brightest stars within a mile or two. None of these forms of lighting are currently regulated in anything like sufficient scope to control light pollution. Control such as cut-off time, maximum power, pointing angle and type of luminaire should be included in planning permissions.

  A local example is the beautiful Liver buildings on the Liverpool waterfront. The Liver buildings have been illuminated for many years to enhance the riverfront appearance at night, recently though, new skyward pointing beams were installed which can now be seen across the city for over five miles away! The installation of these fixtures was not the subject of planning permission with regard to light pollution.

  No planning guidelines exist in specific enough form for exterior domestic lighting. This area of lighting has proliferated dramatically over the past 10 years and is wholly uncontrolled. I have a local situation of an elderly neighbour who installed a 500 Watt security light which points partly onto our property. The light is triggered by high wind as well as normal false alarms eg pets. On most evenings the light triggers in the region of 50 times. This often disturbs our sleep at night. This is ruinous for astronomy but also has the opposite effect to what it was designed for—how does one know if an intruder has entered the property!

3.  Are planning guidelines being applied and enforced effectively?

  Local planning guidelines are not specific enough to control these problems. Where they exist, local policies on light pollution prevention are not implemented, possibly due to a lack of understanding of the problem. One example is Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council (Merseyside) who included a specific policy on light pollution in their Unitary Development Plan, after lobbying by myself and a colleague. Now some three-four years on it is clear from a drive down one of the main dual carriageways that this policy has been ignored. The luminaires are of a type that spills light in all directions well above the horizontal. I have brought to the attention of the council cases that contravene their policy but have remained ignored by enforcing officers. One example was a shop front with two 1000-Watt lamps pointing skyward onto their sign. Thankfully this case was resolved.

4.  Is light measurable in such a way as to make legally enforceable regulatory controls feasible?

  Light is in principle measurable for enforcement purposes but there are great difficulties in a wide approach to this type of control. Some examples would be the wavelength of the light, interfering factors—the ambient background would be high in a shopping area but low in a domestic area. I'm sure experts are available that can better comment on this aspect than I can. I would though advocate regulatory control of lighting supply and design at source as the means of control rather than measurement.

5.  Are further controls on the design of lighting necessary?

  Although some good steps forward have been taken, notably the policy of the Highways Agency to use flat glass fittings on all new major road schemes, policy and thus control in the area of light pollution is sadly lacking.

  Control at source would be the best approach in my view. If manufacturers were regulated in the types of designs they were allowed to sell then many problems of incorrect selection of luminaire would be solved at source. Most manufacturers are now already well aware of the issues and are on the side of wanting to help minimise light pollution and save energy. It would be a small step change to regulate manufacture, which would be unlikely to be opposed by manufacturers.

  This type of regulation could also have a rapid impact on the problems associated with domestic lighting. Sale of replacement lamps for domestic use should be limited to 100 Watts maximum, new domestic exterior lights should be limited to 100 Watts maximum also. This way a significant change would take place over just one-two years. Within perhaps three-four years all domestic lighting would be controlled to 100 Watts maximum.

  The 100-Watt maximum would be more than sufficient to illuminate the largest of domestic gardens (this has been demonstrated) and the benefits would be evident for example in enhanced visibility of intruders (no deep shadows) and a considerable energy saving across the UK which would help towards the governments commitments.

28 April 2003