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Letter published in the Shropshire Star 19 April 2010

Shropshire Council’s plans to reduce the use of street lighting are welcome. While we need lighting to guide us after dark and for safety, we do not need lighting that wastes energy or that shines upwards into night skies blocking views of the planets and stars.

For decades, councils, businesses and individuals have installed lighting without thought for our views of the skies. Too many lights spill upwards creating a nightglow that turns the sky orange above towns such as Shrewsbury and Oswestry.

Every year there are fewer places in Shropshire where the Milky Way can be seen. This is a great loss because starlit skies are beautiful and have inspired scientists, clerics, artists, playwrights and poets since the earliest times. It is an unnecessary loss because carefully capped and directed lights can shine light where it is needed, not into the skies or into people’s houses.

Turning off lights after midnight makes sense in many areas though not, for example, in town centres with a lively night economy. There may even be some rural areas where street lighting can be removed altogether. Shropshire Council must not though repeat the error of Powys Council and alienate residents by threatening to throw them into darkness with little warning. CPRE believes that dark skies make an indispensable contribution to the beauty of our landscapes and we are working to reduce to light pollution all over the country. Here in Shropshire we would welcome the creation of a Starlight Sanctuary in the South Shropshire Hills. A dark skies sanctuary would be good for tourism and an inspiration for the scientists and artists who live in and visit our county.

Andy Boddington
Vice Chairman
CPRE Shropshire

Further Information

• More on dark skies and light pollution
• Image of Shropshire Star letter