N.B. Street lighting (as shown above) is not covered by the Act

Statutory Nuisance: Lighting

The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 amended the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to bring artificial light from premises under the statutory nuisance regime as of 6 April 2006.

The following will constitute a statutory nuisance under this act:

"Artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance"

This does not apply to artificial light from-

• an airport;
• harbour premises;
• railway premises;
• tramway premises;
• a bus station and any associated facilities;
• a public service vehicle operating centre;
• a goods vehicle operating centre;
• a lighthouse;
• a prison.

Plus:

A statutory defence of "best practicable means" will be available to:

• Artificial light emitted from industrial, trade or business premises; and
• Artificial light emitted by lights used for the purpose only of illuminating an outdoor relevant sports facility

The lighting of many of these facilities is also controllable currently under planning legislation, leaving the focus of the new provision on domestic security lighting.

However, few, if any instances of this kind will fulfil the criteria of a "nuisance" given the specialist meaning of that word in the Act. That is not synonymous with "annoyance" and it is narrower than "nuisance" at common law. There is also no records of successful private litigation. It is not about aesthetics either, rather the statutory nuisances are essentially about public health and whilst lights briefly turning on and off, triggered by cats and foxes, may be irritating to light sleeping people with thin curtains, they will rarely, if ever, be harmful.

A defra guidance leaflet on statutory nuisance from lighting is available - Statutory nuisance from artificial light guidance (pdf document).

Avoid causing light pollution

• do not fit unnecessary lights
• do not use excessively bright lights, a 150 watt tungsten halogen lamp is quite adequate, 300 or 500 watt bulbs are too powerful for domestic security lighting
• do not leave lights on when they are not needed, consider controlling lights with passive infra-red detectors, ensuring that they are correctly aligned and installed. For a porch light that is going to be left on all night, a nine watt compact fluorescent lamp is normally adequate

Action against light pollution

If you are experiencing light pollution from your neighbours try approaching the owner of the offending light, politely requesting:

• re-angling or partial shading of the light
• fitting of a passive infra red sensor
• using a lower power bulb

It might help if you can show the neighbour the effect of the light from "your side of the fence". You can also politely suggest to the owner that they may be wasting money on excessive lighting.

Note: lights do not always deter criminals (the main insurers do not offer any reductions in premiums for exterior lighting).

Advice on Installing Domestic Security Lighting

Please view the advice given by the Institution of Lighting Engineers (ILE) on installing domestic security lighting - Installing Security Lighting (pdf document).

For more information on light nuisance and making a complaint please see our "Are you being disturbed by light" leaflet (pdf document).

To open the above pdf document, you will need the free adobe acrobat reader software.