Clare County Council on light pollution

Hi folks,

Some good news to report.
I just got hold of the draft development plan for East Clare –
they
didn't send to me, our new Green Party councilor passed me a copy.

Some of you may recall that I made a lengthy submission to Clare
County Council on light pollution about a year and a half ago when
they were formulating the county development plan. Their response to
that submission was a somewhat vague we'll consider it effort. The
draft County Development plan issued later failed to address the
issue
at all.

On the last day available to make comments on the draft – which
happened to be the local election day for me – I spent a few
hours
reading the draft County plan and writing an email calling on the
council again to address the issues of light and noise pollution (I
thought why not mention noise while I was at it!) and some other
green
issues.

Bizarrely, on the strength of my short email they've now decided to
amend the draft plan to address the light and noise pollution.
Frankly, I'm a bit baffled about why my earlier submission appeared
to
get ignored but this one didn't. But ours is not to reason why!

Here's what they now want to do:

Action

---

Include the following text at page 34 of the draft plan.(I need to
clarify whether they mean County plan or East Clare plan, hopefully
its the county plan.)

Light Pollution

---

The Planning Authority wishes to minimise light pollution (at last!)
and in considering proposals for development that include the
provision of external lighting will require the proposal to clearly
demonstrate that the lighting scheme is the minimum needed for
security and working practises.

The Planning Authority accepts that lighting is a necessary
requirement in relation to security and in some circumstances the
requirements of occupational health and safety. However, the
provision
of floodlighting for commercial and recreational developments in
settlement and the lighting of buildings and facilities in open
countryside can result in a loss of residential amenity or
environmental quality and present a hazard to road users. Details of
any external lighting scheme intended as part of
any new development shall be submitted as part of the planning
application.


[noise pollution bit followed]

So its a start for Clare Co. Co. How it works in practise we'll have
to see (assuming this change to the plan is accepted and lets hope
that it is - I need to get detail on the approval process). If its
passed we (and the council) will have a basis for considering light
pollution and for rejecting or amending planning applications. Its
not everything I was looking for but its still a big step for the
council.

Best wishes,
Colm O'Brien

ILPAC

Excellent!

Well done! Goes to show that simply being persistent can pay off!

Bart.

colm,
well done colm. it is a step in the right direction.
stephen.

Thats a very positive outcome achieved. Looks like email is the medium that gets noticed. Congrats! Looks like they have eh-hem "seen the light"!!

Liam

well done ILPAC & Al

One Local authority down how many more to go?

Count me in for when my City 's plan is due for renewal in about two years.


Conor

Excellent,
This could be a precident that can be followed elsewhere, we can now say that light control is feasible because it is happeneing in Clare.