I’ve just had a new street light installed outside my house. I now have something akin to a small sun blazing through my bedroom windows – I already have blackout blinds fitted, and this lamp is getting through..!

What do I do about this (short of using a pellet gun)?

Complain to environmental health dept at your local council. Get an appointment at yer GP for sleep tablets, lay it on thick.

I already have blackout blinds fitted, and this lamp is getting through..!
What do I do about this (short of using a pellet gun)?

Better blinds, which might be better than the nimby attitude.

Contact the council: we had a new light installed and they put some shielding on the lamp…when I say shielding, it basically amounted to some guy coming out with some gaffer tape which went on the side and rear of the lamp. Did the job though.

Better blinds, which might be better than the nimby attitude.

How is this a NIMBY attitude? Its not like its a new development, its just a replacement for something that already existed, and was more than adequate.

I don’t mind decent street lighting, but this is just daft – I can’t f****ng sleep because of this. The old light was only about 10 years old.

How is this a NIMBY attitude?

Complain to environmental health dept at your local council. Get an appointment at yer GP for sleep tablets, lay it on thick.

❓

Yeah we had some installed on our street recently, they’re bright white and akin to footy stadium spotlights! They go right through my blackout blinds as well!

Total darkness is good, if not essential for healthy human sleep! Complain!

We have the same problem, it’s bloody ridiculous – so bright I can easily walk around my house with the curtains drawn and the lights off.

There’s absolutely no need for such stupidly bright lighting on local residential roads and even if there were, there’s no reason that the lighting head can’t be created in a way that it does not cast light onto house walls (think barn-doors on stage lighting). IT’s just laziness on the part of the street lighting folk at the council. There are actually rules regarding how they should be mounted and certain types are meant to be mounted in certain ways, but it’s mostly ignored. After I complained to my council they fitted barn doors to the sides of the lights completely missing the point that the whole head was angled upward and it was that the was casting light onto opposing houses. A quick check online showed those heads were not designed for angled mounting (no surprise) due to the beam angle. I contacted the council but they’ve ignored me.

None of this surprises me. After my contact with the council regarding their contractors shockingly poor and highly dangerous signage on roadworks, I was told twice that the signage was correct. It’s only when I quoted the law/guidance from the relevant regulations that they admitted they were wrong and told me to make a claim instead. I swear half the folk in my local council are only there because they wouldn’t be employed in a company.

I genuinely think more people should complain – loads of my neighbours have said the same but none bother to complain.

Our local footy ground have un-guarded stadium lights that project a) up into the sky lighting up the whole bloody area and b) across the fields directly into your eyes on nearby roads. It’s almost as though the whole world thinks brighter is better and forgets that darkness is good and needed.

Don’t complain. just call the street lighting department (or find the contract manager if it’s pfi) and ask nicely. they will often put a metal plate behind the lamp to shield your propery from the light if its an issue. try asking nicely though. if they don’t help, leave them and ask your ward councillor nicely.

not up in Sheffield are you?

The are just installing a load of new white LED lights. But they can control the brightness from their control room.

Asking nicely gets you fobbed off 9 times out of 10. Tell them nicely that it’s wrong.

I genuinely think more people should complain – loads of my neighbours have said the same but none bother to complain.

I think that maybe lots of people have complained about poorly lit streets and dangerous streets, and the result is vastly improved street lights.
Damned if you do and all that.

I swear half the folk in my local council are only there because they wouldn’t be employed in a company.

Is this because they have no initiative? You made me smile. Thanks.

Not something I’ve ever heard anyone complain about around here. But anyway, it’s only damned if you do [badly and without thinking].

I think that maybe lots of people have complained about poorly lit streets and dangerous streets, and the result is vastly improved street lights.
Damned if you do and all that.

The street on which I live is only 25 years old, well lit with many of the lamp standards having been replaced within the past 10 years. There were no faulty lights, or damage to any of the posts. I think they’re part of an “energy saving” initiative that must be costing taxpayers a small fortune.

I can imagine the executive committee; “we now save £10,000 per year on our electricity bills, and it only cost us an initial outlay of £3,000,000…!!!!”

“new white LED lights”

Just had a shed load of these put up around where i live in Rotherham, light all the foorpaths up a treat but thats all ..the spread of the light just goes down onto the path so all the gardens are now in pitch black , not great for home security

And when i walk the dog at night i used to see all the local kids sat around in the shadows having a cheeky smoke/drink…never any bother just kids being kids, now all i hear is voices in the dark and the kids know i cant see them but they can see me

well done Rotherham Council !

cant stop got to take the dog out, wish me luck ….

So none of you care about the energy saving nature of these lights? The fact they last longer, produce much less light pollution, are much cheaper to run, saving money on the local electricity bill, allowing the money saved to be put somewhere more useful doesn’t matter? Most street lights are bloody hopeless, lighting the houses in a sickly yellow glow, leaving the road itself dark, or just lighting a miserable puddle of yellowish pink underneath the light. That’s what the ones down my road are like, and, having seen the way LED lights work in Bath, I want them introduced as soon as possible, especially as they can be dimmed late at night, giving enough light to see to walk, but not a brilliant white light.

Wear sunglasses in bed, it will make you look cool too. 8)

the spread of the light just goes down onto the path so all the gardens are now in pitch black , not great for home security

I reckon most residents would love that their garden/house is not lit up, I know I would. I have blackout blinds in my bedroom and the only time I get a good nights sleep is when we have a power cut! They turn our lights off completely after midnight and back on at dawn now, unfortunately they are still blazing when I am struggling to sleep.

If you wanted your house lit for security, there’s not many that would leave a floodlight on all night, they would fit a PIR one.

Someone trying to break into your shed by torch light/tripping over stuff in the pitch black is much more likely to be noticed than someone that can benefit from light thats already there.

Eye eye, we too are having LED’s fitted “rand ar way init like” we used to have those ghastly orange affairs and they were quite useless at chucking out anything remotely glowing, now, well it’s almost like a small nuclear facility has been installed in the cul de sac right next to me.. Though have to say the direction of light they produce is much nicer, more directional towards the pavements rather than just some unhealthy glow and I think they’ve turned them down a bit, we did see some bloke in a white van sticking his hand out the window with some big black device, so he’s either a google bod taking nighttime photos of our local MILF or he’s assessing the lights, I think it’s the latter.
So I’d say contact the council, then if that fails get yerself a makeshift shield and DIY.. You can guarantee as soon as you touch the light someone will be around far quicker than you can get down off the ladder.

So now, well we look like we are in Europe what with all this fancy lighting.

From about 17 min 30 secs…

i prefer the led ones, cost saving on my council tax spending is a good thing

they interviewed some of our local residents about the new LED lights on look north.

i hung my head in despair when hearing their thoughts on the matter.

it worries me that half of you lot ^^^ are on their side.

less light pollution, (they claim sheffield will no longer appear as an orange glow from the peaks at night) better directional control, reduced energy consumption, increased lifespan.

what’s not to like?

http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html

Cant believe this hasnt been posted yet!

Someone in your situation might do something like this, although I wouldn’t recommend it

1: Go to the hardware store and get a gorilla wrench and some expanding foam “no more gaps” or similar
2: Open up the panel on the lamp, disconnect the wiring (it’s plug and play). Once disconnected cut the connecting blocks off
3: Fill the cavity with expanding foam
4: Lock the panel
5: Enjoy blissful sleep

That randomjeremy knows his stuff..

Try doing it whilst standing in a bucket of water with a hose pipe connected to next doors outside tap, suggest a sprinkler too, you know just for effect possibly some orange dye and a wand.

“spooky” im fine i have one of the new led lamps casting a nice glow over the bottom half of my garden

im more worried about when im walking the dog or staggering home from the pub 🙂

I’ve just had a new street light installed outside my house. I now have something akin to a small sun blazing through my bedroom windows – I already have blackout blinds fitted, and this lamp is getting through..!

look out your rear windows and you will see a multi vaned wind turbine producing the energy for the new enviromentally freindly street lights.
and further on a huge nuclear powewer station humming along.

it worries me that half of you lot ^^^ are on their side.
less light pollution, (they claim sheffield will no longer appear as an orange glow from the peaks at night) better directional control, reduced energy consumption, increased lifespan.
what’s not to like?

I don’t know if the thing outside my house is the same as those in Sheffield, but at what point does changing from a dull orange glow to bright white light mean less light pollution. The light from this lamp is FAR brighter than the sodium thing that its replaced.

I cannot see any reason why it has to be so bright. I don’t live in a particularly high crime area, there’s no CCTV that requires white lighting, I don’t live on a busy thoroughfare or accident hotspot, just quiet residential street.

You people should try sleeping during the day after working nights. A real Sun shines through the curtains, not a bit of a brighter street light.

Sleep TFU.

If you have proper blackout blinds it will errr “blackout” the light – they have to fit properly of course. You should write to the council and get them to pay for the blinds – a few 100 quid should do it

White lights are actually a lot worse for light pollution – the spread spectrum is much harder to filter out, whereas the sodium lights have a very narrow frequency range – much easier to filter.

Quick happy update about this; the council bloke came to have a look and lo and behold said they’re well out of their specification. Apparently they’re rated 18watts higher than the sodium but angled down, as someone above described. Also in highway or building regs (don’t know which as he gave a lot of info’) they should never be directly outside a house (which this one was), and should be positioned at the gable end between properties, and in any event should not be within 1 metre of a drop kerb (which again, this was).

The result? The light was moved that day and although its still bright, it doesn’t shine directly into any houses.

We have the same outside our bedroom. I used to work for the council as a sparks and still have a universal post key so I’ve pulled the cut out at the base of the light on a fee occasions. It takes the street lighting boys ages to pop out and replace it.

less light pollution, (they claim sheffield will no longer appear as an orange glow from the peaks at night) better directional control, reduced energy consumption, increased lifespan.

So we’ll no longer be able to see Mordor when we look to the East?

Most councillors are as much use as a wet tissue and just in it for themselves and to top up their pensions at our expenses,make a big issue put of it with relevant departments if nothing gets done local press etc etc once the councillor realises negative publicity will lose them votes the may act.