Some of you may know because we had planning permission granted for an extension we have had bad trouble with our neighbours. well my question and i have been seaching the internet is - under the environmental health can i ring and ask about my neighbours light. I know this story is one sided but i will tell you whats happened. back in september the neighbours had a commercial warehouse floodlight put on the side of the house (never been a light there in near on 11 years and no door etc needed for security). when the builders were in ours on friday gone and the window man had been, the light was as expected switched on and has been switched on every night since and all night til 9am. the light needless to say is right opposite what will be my daughters bedroom when all the work is done and obviously been put there for spite. our extension plans can be viewed on our local council site and they knew where the window was going etc. now the window is in the light is so bright . it is a commercial warehouse light, not a normal security light matching their others and is horrendous ( iwish i could put photos etc). can i ring and ask someones opinion, do they class light as a nuisance ? the light i would say is near on only about 3/4 foot away from the middle of my daughters window just at the right height !!!

When neighbours across the road from me moved in they put up a light so bright it flooded my houe with light, and we were two gardens and a road apart! They were good and tweaked it to stop most of the light coming into my house, but I was told by another neighbour who finds the light too bright still that they could go to the council and get an enviromental health officer to look at how bright the light is.

I find these lights so annoying. I cannot sleep if the room is flooded with light which it was even though I had really thick lined curtains. I had hoped living in a village would get me away from a lot of this light pollution.

http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/law.html?0O
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/inf007.htm
there you go :D Hope that helps a bit.

I had a similar situation.  We have a small block of flats behind us and when we had our kitchen extended their external light was more obvious and constantly shining in.  I phoned the Council - who acted immediately and they were told to change it to an sensory one - which only comes on when movement is detected.  This is much better for us and now we hardly even notice it.
Try the Council - they can be very helpful.

i used to have a back to back garden and his light used to flood both gardens our living room, bedrooms was a nuisance and it used to come on when someone in our house would move inside a room in our house, we contacted the council explained the situation and they came out and sorted it he had to lower the light as it had been installed to high on his wall, and he had the wrong bulb in it for brightness so my council did do something about it hope it helps

We have this with a neighbour out the back, and asked them to angle it down to only cover their own garden, it is sited 100 feet away.

well i cant ask them anything because we dont speak, and i know it's a one sided story but its been put there for one reason and one reason only and thats because they never got their way to stop our extension so are stooping so low as to do anything to try and annoy us. the light will shine right into my daughters room, it is a commercial warehouse light bulkhead thing, not one that can be tilted or angled etc so is facing my daughters room about 3 foot away. i presume when all our works are done and my daughter is due to actually move into there then i phone the environmental health in my local council ?

thanking you Alfieshmalfie - very interesting reading, thanks for those links

EHO are the way to go :-D

A commercial light has no business being on a residential house.  Our neighbours are soooo irritating, they put all their garden lights on and sit inside.  Meawhile the glare from the lights comes in our bedroom window, round the curtains.  They are away for a week so last night was bliss, pitch black in our room I couldn't see a thing :-)

thanks Granitecitygirl, i know even if the wanted a security light on our side of the hous, there hasnt been one there for near 11 years, but if it was me i'd get a matching one to the one on the back of my house. I'll give Enviro Health a call and discuss with them. Only thing that worries me is that would they have to see it actually on and the total brightness ridiclious glear off it or would they come around and see that it is a commercial warehouse light which is non tilting etc and is 3 foot away from my daughters room and that would be enough to tell them to take it away because why is it there in the first place ? Well i know the reason for that but ................................................

Take photographs as evidence.  Sounds dreadful - I do hope you get it sorted before you take up residence in your extension.

Hi Loucon

I know you've had a pretty horrible time with these neighbours.  Just a thought: before any authority takes action they may well ask what you've done so far.

Perhaps send a nicely worded note, explaining the strength and angle of light, childs bedroom etc, to ask your neighbour to reduce the wattage and change the position?  I know from your previous posting that this has an almost zero chance of working BUT it demonstrates that you have taken resonable steps to resolve the problem.  It also proves that you are unwilling to stoop to their petty level :) 

Do you think you are being harassed? If so you might want to investigate what options are available to you.  Even if you do not want to go that far yet, it might be helpful to understand what the process is.  Incidentally, did you manage to resolve the fence issue?

thanks dogs a babe - ha the fence issue - we have had a call from solicitor saying that they (next door) have been on the phone demanding that because our gate is attached to the concrete pillar thing that is theirs that we get rid of it off their property. Being harrassed i would go so far as to say yes to that now. I live in hope that because she is a mrs boutique that she will become far too good for this area and decide to move. the day that happens i'll have a party - everyone invited !

we have started to take a light diary - sad i know but we can then tell someone if we go down that route about what times it has been on etc. we have taken video evidence but doesnt show up as well as obviously real life and it is hoorendous. you know the worse thing is that she knows it's going to be my daughters bedroom, made her have frosted glass in the bedroom window and knows my daughters health isnt 100% and then puts that smash bang in the middle of the window about 3 foot away shining all night !!!

Not poo pooing the issue but.... I know its not ideal but you can get Blackout blinds that will stop the light coming in your daughters room till you can get this issue fully sorted. I had a problem with neighbours once over my sensor floodlight at the rear of a property i had... Problem was it was his overgrown tree causing the sensor to go off and he never realised this.  I did however remove the bulb (as he was very threatening towards me).  As above i'd contact my local authority and/or environmental health and find out if they can tackle the issue. 

Thanks chip, yes i'll be ordering a blackout blind anyway just incase before my daughter actually moves into the bedroom. Have enough to be going on about and stuff at the moment but i will contact the enviromental health about it at some point to see what if anything can be done about it. In the meantime it wont do any harm getting the blackout blind ordered and put up just in case anyway. Thanks for everyones advice, you've all be great. Cheers

Please keep us informed as to how you get on. Good luck.