Light Nuisance

What Is Light Nuisance?

Section 102 of the Clean Neighbourhoods Act creates a new form of legal nuisance namely "artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance".

However, this does not include light emitted from the following:
Premises used for transport purposes or where high levels of light are required for safety and security reasons, i.e.:

• Airports Public service vehicle operating centres
• Harbours Goods vehicle operating centres
• Railway premises
• Lighthouses
• Tramway premises
• Prisons
• Bus stations and associated facilities
• Premises occupied for Defence purposes

There is also a defence for all trade, industrial, business or outdoor sports facilities that the “best practicable means” to prevent light pollution is being taken.

What if You Have a Light Nuisance Problem

There is little in the way of formal guidance as to what constitutes legally actionable light pollution. We investigate light nuisance in much the same way as we investigate noise nuisance. This is intended to establish whether the problem is sufficiently severe as to warrant legal action by the Council. We make this judgement against the following criteria:

• The duration of the nuisance (how long does it last for when it happens, seconds, minutes or hours?)
• he frequency of the nuisance (how often does it happen, daily, weekly or once in a blue moon?)
• The seriousness of the nuisance (does it materially affect someone's use of their house? The usual critical factor is whether it disturbs sleep).The motives behind the action causing the nuisance (is it malicious or does the problem arise from ordinary behaviour?.
• The sensitivity of the complainant (is the person who is complaining 'ordinary' or overly sensitive to the light?)

For more information on how we investigate complaints, how we make decisions on the action we take and what we can do have a look at our fact sheet:

• Nuisance From Artificial Light Fact Sheet (PDF Document, 0.22 Mb)
  

Advice on Security Light Installation

Advice and recommended installion methods to minimise obtrusive security lighting can be found in the following guidance notes from The Institution of Lighting Engineers:

• Domestic Security LIghting (PDF Document, 0.23 Mb)
  
• Guidance Notes for the Reduction of Obtrusive Light (PDF Document, 0.11 Mb)
  

If you would like to make a complaint you can contact us through the report a problem link on the Environmental Health homepage.