Need your help... non surf

[AndyLala]

Ok Gentlefolk... can anyone help with this one...
As some of you may or may not know, a little under three years ago we moved into a new house. We’d stumbled upon it and it met all our needs... Missus and kids are chuffed to bits, and that suits me fine. To be honest, I also like the house very much...
The developers liked the house too and the street, so much so that they used it for the majority of their advertising, until they reached saturation. A couple of months ago, I got a few phone calls and letters saying they wanted to put a lamppost up outside my front door... okey doke... new one on me... lamp posts had never been mentioned, wouldn’t have bought it if they’d be a lamppost outside my daughters windows... (we have enough trouble getting them to sleep as it is)...
So I write, call and email saying thank you for your letter but no thankyou... some sort of consultation stage goes past, and I put up all sorts of complaints and concerns... as do my neighbours... we all moved in together, and a nice small community has grown up here...
Missus gets a knock at the door today, from one of the builders... courtesy call, we are putting up a lamppost tomorrow... just to let you know... not to shoot the messenger... now where did I put that angle grinder?
They have landed this on us and I am steaming... is there such thing as a nice lampoost....? They have been spouting safety... local crime officer doesn’t support this... they are coming up with all sorts... suffice it to say ... nothing proven... it boils down to a set of design criteria which the council agreed to... and the developer have to meet it to get it signed off and accepted by the council...
As we were not party to the design criteria and the consultation phase, we could not complain at that stage... now apparently it’s too late... Neither the council nor the developer will concede... and we are not even involved in the proceedings...
Found a few things... that might help, but it’s all rather vague...
The joke of all this is the councils own website...
http://www.oxfordshirehighways.org
Council services > Roads and transport > Street maintenance > Street lighting
Quote:
Provision of the Service – Legal Powers and Duties - There is no statutory requirement on local authorities in the United Kingdom to provide public lighting.
Found this too... but real vague...
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/law.html?6O
Boils down to if they trespass on my property... they are obligated to put that right.. And that’s physical trespass or light trespass... but it means complaining every single night they turn the damn things on.
Does anyone have any thoughts...?

[TonyN]

Get a gun, illuminated target practise.

Dunno where you stand mate, it was probably planned long before you moved in. There has to be a light somewhere surely.

Knock it gently every night with your truck, that might break the bulb, if no one complains once its broken hopefully council won't notice.

[AndyLala]

Hmmm interesting idea... thought about that... incredibly illegal... damaging public property...

hmmm... what about removing the bulb completely... not damaging...? I wonder...

PS. we need to talk about some truck related things...

Also, I suppose knocking it down and cutting it up in to little bits and posting it back to them... is considered vandalism... I suppose I'll have to cross that off my list too...

[stormforce]

There is such a thing as light pollution.I will talk to a guy at work tomorrow as he is going thru the same thing.I don't think you will be able to do anything until the light is up and working and then i think it will come under enviromental health or something but i will get some details for you and let you know what he says he's doing

[Diezel Weazel]

Ya could always send em a bill for monthly Rental if it's located on your property
Good Luck

There's always a Payback .... Ya just never ever see it Comin !!!!

[AndyLala]

I am sure that this is the only option I have left.

http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/law.html?6O

So we have physical trespass and light trespass...

So its an environmental nuisance....
Phonecalls, letters and email everynight the damn thing turns on.
I'll become the environmental nuisance...

All they seem to be interested in is matching what was proposed to what has been built... the 201 amendment to the BS lighting spec is interesting... they appear to add 25% more lights than they need incase one in four fails, so they still meet the criteria... but this goes against the councils own website which states there is no obligation to illuminate...

PS. for giggles the entire email and letter writing has gone to david cameron as a pdf... who knows... he might do something... after all every single streetlamp wastes 131kw of electricity a year... turn half of them off and use more 'efficient' bulbs and we'd meet out evironmental targets.

[darkdezigns]

the night before they are due,car parked legally just alongside where they are putting it,and one along side on your property,then when they come,wonder out with a video camera

[da SLUG man]

take the panel off the bottom (it's got a key, like your meter cupboard)...
there's a breaker in there... just switch it off.

[biosurf]

If it all gets to the point of all the fighting coming to nothing (and believe me I think fight it all the way) then you can appeal to the council for a blind to be attached to the light so it blocks as much of it as possible from entering the windows of the house.

I would tend to the switching it off idea though

[AndyLala]

Thanks Folks... Much appreciated...

Lots of good ideas here....

Copies of all the paperwork now distributed to the great and good... (our local representatives) let see if they want to take up the torch...

[Sancho]

The developer almost certainly has a legal obligation, either through and adoption or planning obligation agreement to put the lamp there. It may even be a condition of the planning permission. They would be more than happy to walk away but have probably been dragged back by the Council to do what they said they would.

You have two main routes to pursue:

1. Don't bother writing to Council officers. They will ignore you as they don't have the power or time to sort these things out and are pretty much obliged to just go by the book, regardless of how retarded it seems. Find out who your ward Councillor is (may be County, rather than District council) and give them the full works, tell them that it is causing you and your family great distress, that you were never consulted, that it will severely affect your standard of living etc etc. The more you ham it up, the more they love it. They will probably then bully the officers into doing something about it, especially if you keep pestering them.

2. If you didn't get told about the light when you bought the house, you could start talking to the developer about the Property Misrepresentation Act. Strictly speaking, the developer has done nothing wrong if you never asked if a street lamp would be going there, but it's a frightening thing to mention as the sales rep will have personal liability for it and could go to jail. I would write to the Sales and Marketing Director stating that you were never informed that a lamp post would be going up outside your house and that you believe this to be a misrepresentation under the act. It might not work, but it will be a giggle at least.

Otherwise, yeah, turn it off (or even ask the subcontractor to leave it off when they install it).

[AndyLala]

Sancho... you are a star...

Looks like a plan is forming...

I presume the county council should list these councillors somewhere...
Off to start looking...

[coolsv650]

There is such a thing as light pollution.I will talk to a guy at work tomorrow as he is going thru the same thing.I don't think you will be able to do anything until the light is up and working and then i think it will come under enviromental health or something but i will get some details for you and let you know what he says he's doing

There is no legal requirement to provide street lighting, but where a road is "adopted" (ie maintained by the council) the lighting has to be to their standard. If the road is unadopted all the owners of the houses would have to maintain the road.

It sounds like an adopted street.

As part of the planning process the developer will have had to take the decision to ensure the streets are adopted as it makes the units more saleable and the council will have specified and approved the lighting scheme, if the developer deviates from that scheme he will be called back to rectify it.

The problem with using environmental health is that the council cannot take itself to court so nothing will get done!