Bright lights

My journey home is mostly along a canal towpath. In one section, there
is a factory on the other side of the canal that has such bright lights
that I am dazzled, and I can barely see where I am going. Given the
proximity of the canal, where someone died earlier this year, I think
this is dangerous. Has anyone had any success in approaching a factory
asking them to change their lighting, or is there any other
organisation to whom I can complain?

wrote:
My journey home is mostly along a canal towpath. In one section, there
is a factory on the other side of the canal that has such bright lights
that I am dazzled, and I can barely see where I am going. Given the
proximity of the canal, where someone died earlier this year, I think
this is dangerous. Has anyone had any success in approaching a factory
asking them to change their lighting, or is there any other
organisation to whom I can complain?

British Waterways request that we don't use the canal towpaths for
riding during the hours of darkness, probably for this very reason. If
you want to complain, you should write to the company and see what
happens. That wouldn't hurt.

David

said the following on 31/10/2006 11:55:
My journey home is mostly along a canal towpath. In one section, there
is a factory on the other side of the canal that has such bright lights
that I am dazzled, and I can barely see where I am going. Given the
proximity of the canal, where someone died earlier this year, I think
this is dangerous. Has anyone had any success in approaching a factory
asking them to change their lighting, or is there any other
organisation to whom I can complain?

Are you talking about so-called security lights? You should approach
the factory first - they may simply be unaware of the problem.

*When* that fails, then try the local council. Not sure which
department, but you could perhaps find out if they needed planning
permission to install these lights...

There is also a DEFRA article on nuisance lighting - type those last two
words into google. That might help you.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

On Tue, 31 Oct 2006, Paul Boyd usenet.dont.work@plusnet wrote:

*When* that fails, then try the local council. Not sure which
department, but you could perhaps find out if they needed planning
permission to install these lights...

Not normally. The lights themselves don't, so if you bolt lights onto
an existing building or existing fence post / guard tower / whatever
you probably won't need permission. If, however, you erect towers to
carry the lights, that's a building operation, and then you probably
would need planning permission (for towers and lights).

Probably.

In most cases.

Planning permission is far from cut-and-dried, however, and there's
quite a bit of discretion vested in the authority planning department,
who may have their own opinions. In some cases it's as hard to get an
authority to state whether permission is required or not as it is to
actually get the permission. Also, there's loads of special cases
(listed, aonb, sssi, conservation area, etc etc) where the normal
rules don't apply.

regards, Ian SMith
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wrote in message
ps.com...
My journey home is mostly along a canal towpath. In one section, there
is a factory on the other side of the canal that has such bright lights
that I am dazzled, and I can barely see where I am going. Given the
proximity of the canal, where someone died earlier this year, I think
this is dangerous. Has anyone had any success in approaching a factory
asking them to change their lighting, or is there any other
organisation to whom I can complain?


Yes - your local Council

Legislation recently introduced addresses this (to an extent)

Check out
http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/...atnuisance.pdf
(start at para 97)

Not sure if it has ever been used in anger.

hth

Matt

Sirius631 wrote:

British Waterways request that we don't use the canal towpaths for
riding during the hours of darkness, probably for this very reason.

Do they? N65 out of Selby uses a canal towpath, and I've not seen any
signs there to indicate that cyclists shouldn't use it at night.

If there are no signs, and signposted alternative routes, at the
towpath itself, how does BW intend to discourage people from cycling
along them?

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________

Sirius631 wrote:
British Waterways request that we don't use the canal towpaths for
riding during the hours of darkness, probably for this very reason.

and Stevie D wondered:
Do they? N65 out of Selby uses a canal towpath, and I've not seen any
signs there to indicate that cyclists shouldn't use it at night.

If there are no signs, and signposted alternative routes, at the
towpath itself, how does BW intend to discourage people from cycling
along them?

BW requires cyclists to have a permit to cycle along towpaths (not that
anyone ever seems to have been asked for one). In applying for a
permit, it is stated that you agree to follow the Waterways Code [1].
So perhaps what they're actually trying to do is encourage people to
follow the Waterways Code, which on the subject of cycling during the
hours of darkness says:

"We strongly advise against cycling the towpath after dark, but if you
have to, use front and rear lights."

Which seems perfectly reasonable to me, and doesn't actually request
that we don't use the towpaths after dark.

[1] url:http://www.waterscape.com/images/Waterways_Code_2005.pdf

--
Danny Colyer URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Danny Colyer wrote:

BW requires cyclists to have a permit to cycle along towpaths

Even where they are part of the NCN? How are cyclists supposed to know
that?

--
Stevie D
\\\\\ ///// Bringing dating agencies to the
\\\\\\\__X__/////// common hedgehog since 2001 - "HedgeHugs"
___\\\\\\\'/ \'///////_____________________________________________

Danny Colyer wrote:
BW requires cyclists to have a permit to cycle along towpaths

Stevie D wrote:
Even where they are part of the NCN? How are cyclists supposed to know
that?

I've known for so long that I really can't remember how I know. ISTR it
was well publicised about 10 years ago.

I *believe* there are frequent signs along the local towpaths mentioning
the permit requirement, but I've done very little towpath riding in the
years since the permit requirement was introduced and am not at all sure
of that.

--
Danny Colyer URL:http://www.colyer.plus.com/danny/
Reply address is valid, but that on my website is checked more often
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

Sirius631 wrote on 31/10/2006 12:08:
wrote:
My journey home is mostly along a canal towpath. In one section, there
is a factory on the other side of the canal that has such bright lights
that I am dazzled, and I can barely see where I am going.

British Waterways request that we don't use the canal towpaths for
riding during the hours of darkness, probably for this very reason. If
you want to complain, you should write to the company and see what
happens. That wouldn't hurt.

As an illustration of this sort of thing, an astronomer friend wrote to
a local (Manchester/Longsight) shunting yard to point out that a heck of
a lot of their night-lighting was badly angled and pointing
upwards/outwards rather than downwards to the yard itself. He was met
with friendliness and cooperation - and they indeed, IIRC, reangled the
lights fairly promptly. Just remember the people working there are
humans too, be polite and you might be surprised to see what happens!
After all, light spilled outside their boundary is light (and energy)
wasted.

Regards

Peter



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