Artificial light complaints
We can only investigate complaints of artificial light if the lighting is causing a statutory nuisance. This means that disturbances from the light are so bad, they significantly interfere with the enjoyment of your home or are likely to cause ill health. There is no threshold of brightness that determines a statutory nuisance.
The most common types of light complaint involve domestic or commercial security lights, lighting at sports facilities and domestic or commercial decorative lights. Occasionally, we also receive complaints about light shows and Christmas lighting.
If you are experiencing disturbances from artificial lighting, we recommend that you first speak to the owners of the light because they may not know that the light is causing an issue. If this doesn’t solve the problem, you can report the light to us.
Reporting light disturbences online
You can make complaints about artificial light to us anytime online:
- You will need to register if it's your first time using the online service, or log in with your existing details
- Select 'requests'
- Select 'submit a request complaint'
- Choose the best 'request subject' that matches the cause of the problem
What we'll do about light complaints
If you submit a complaint using our online form, you will need to tell us the address of where you think the problem originates. We will contact whoever is responsible for the property and tell them that a complaint has been made. We will not tell them who has made the complaint.
Diary
After you have made a complaint to us, we will contact you and ask you to complete an incident diary of how and when the light is causing you a problem. This is because each complaint is assessed on a case-by-case basis. An officer will review the evidence you provide in your diary and determine the most appropriate course of action . If you do not keep a detailed incident diary, we will not be able to take any further investigate your complaint.
If we find that the light is causing a statutory nuisance, we can serve an abatement notice on the person or company responsible for the light. An abatement notice requires the recipient to take action to prevent the light nuisance. If they fail to do so without reasonable excuse, they are committing an offence.
If we are unable to take any action against the complaint, you have the option to take your own private legal action.
Some lights are not covered by statutory nuisance laws and we cannot investigate complaints about lighting from these premises.