Light pollution an important trend

I also understood that planning applications would still need to be submitted and no unpalnned housing would be allowed.

Ah right, I didnt mean that you could just build a house on your land, or course planning permission still is needed. But my concern is with the broader issue of town planning.

But I would imagine that few people will be building homes with the intent of deliberately polluting the night sky and wasting energy.

Not deliberatly, but its my opinion that mini-southforks are on the increase and more and more people in rural areas are using upward facing floodlighting to show off their houses/trees/etc. Perhaps thats just my perception though.

I'm sure you all will be keeping an eye as usual on any planning applications in your areas and ensuring that badly lit premises are not going up