Bad
Lighting Award
Bad
Lighting Award
For the astronomer, whilst observing, there is no such thing as good outdoor lighting but some lighting schemes are totally beyond the pale - like that at the Epsom & Ewell Council run Bourne Hall Library in Ewell - Surrey - UK. Winner of the under-9's age group in the BBC's 1999 Blue Peter Light-up Britain Awards in association with the lighting industry - it is a travesty of quality external lighting.
A dozen powerful halogen lamps in pits around the building and over two dozen 6ft fluorescent lamps high on the window transoms and surrounding flat roofs all point vertically skywards ! Not surprisingly the illumination to the building is quite muted for very little of it actually strikes the building itself. The vast majority of the light contributes to the ever increasing skyglow over Ewell and surrounding areas but judge for yourself from the pictures below.
Despite reasoned protests from the local astronomical society who used [past tense] the building monthly for the last 25 years, individual astronomers both here and abroad to Blue Peter and the local council, our concerns were totally ignored and the installation appeared virtually overnight last autumn 1999. And who has paid for this scheme, its maintenance and running costs - could it be the local ratepayers who have just received their rate demands which show marked increases? Guess what the lucky local lad got for his illuminating Blue Peter scheme - a telescope to view the stars over evermore light polluted Epsom !
The
whole problem is symptomatic of both national and local government's
ineptitude in squandering finite energy resources [which directly contributes
to global warming] and providing no effective legislation to protect adjoining
owners from intrusive external lighting. Perhaps unsurprisingly the
lighting
industry seems to have a totally different agenda.
To provide a sense of fairplay [something rarely awarded to astronomers in this particular cause] some websites are underscored for your perusal. You will find it quite illuminating what they do or do not say on this subject matter. The list should include the International Darksky Association [IDA], Campaign for Dark Skies [CfDS] in association with the British Astronomical Association [BAA], Friends of the Earth, Council for the Protection of Rural England, Greenpeace etc. If there is a search engine within the site try words like "light pollution", "energy conservation", "energy waste", "security lighting", "good lighting" etc but don't hold your breath !Maurice Gavin, retired architect - astronomer for 53 years, BAA president 1996-7, Epsom & Ewell BC resident for 33 years.The local newspaper for 1999 November 11, reporting events at Bourne Hall, clearly takes the more popular view ...including the ill-informed comments of the Hall manager on light pollution.