LED Lampost - Unadopted Road - Fitting a shield?

pimento

We live in a six year old Barratt House.  The road it's on is yet to be adopted by the council (but may be in the future).
There is an LED street light literally outside our bedroom window that is on from dusk until dawn.  It is VERY bright and we have blackout blinds and curtains to try to make it dark enough to sleep.  Due to the way our house is laid out, the garden is at the side so is also affected by the street light and it is never dark.
I'd like to ask to have it shielded but I doubt BDW Homes will do it and of course, neither will the council.
My question is, is there any reason why I can't get someone in to do it myself?  Has anyone ever done this themselves?

unforeseen

pimento said:

My question is, is there any reason why I can't get someone in to do it myself? 

You mean apart from the fact that it is not your property, you have no rights to modify it and any changes will probably fall foul of one of the following that specify the design and function of them

 British Standard and British Standard European Specifications. 

 Code of Practice for the Design of Road Lighting BS 5489 :2003 

 Road Lighting (Performance Requirements) BS EN 13201–2:2003 

 Requirements for Electrical Installations BS 7671 

 Supply of Materials [various British or European Standards as referred to below] 

 The Institution of Lighting Engineers publications. 

 Code of Practice for Electrical Safety in Highway Electrical Operations, as amended within this Specification 

 

 Guidance Notes for the Reduction of Light Pollution 

 

 Technical Report No. 12 – Lighting for Pedestrian Crossing 

 Technical Report No. 23 – Lighting of Cycle Tracks 

 Technical Report No. 25 – Lighting for Traffic Calming Schemes 

 The Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974.

Ectophile

Do you know who the light belongs to?  It's quite possible to have council-owned lights on an unadopted road.

pimento

According to the web site of the company who looks after roadway lighting in my city, it isn't them.

pimento

unforeseen said:

pimento said:

My question is, is there any reason why I can't get someone in to do it myself? 

You mean apart from the fact that it is not your property, you have no rights to modify it and any changes will probably fall foul of one of the following that specify the design and function of them

 British Standard and British Standard European Specifications. 

 Code of Practice for the Design of Road Lighting BS 5489 :2003 

 Road Lighting (Performance Requirements) BS EN 13201–2:2003 

 Requirements for Electrical Installations BS 7671 

 Supply of Materials [various British or European Standards as referred to below] 

 The Institution of Lighting Engineers publications. 

 Code of Practice for Electrical Safety in Highway Electrical Operations, as amended within this Specification 

 

 Guidance Notes for the Reduction of Light Pollution 

 

 Technical Report No. 12 – Lighting for Pedestrian Crossing 

 Technical Report No. 23 – Lighting of Cycle Tracks 

 Technical Report No. 25 – Lighting for Traffic Calming Schemes 

 The Health and Safety at Work Act, 1974.

Fair enough, I did ask.
Would you think there is anything I can do except put up with it?

Ectophile

Dare I suggest getting somebody to attach a suitable (properly made) shield to the light column.  And if anyone asks, then it's always been like that.

pimento

This is actually what I thought I might do. I don't want to break any rules though. I'm happy to pay to have it done.

rach_k

Have you actually contacted anybody about it (the council, the people who look after other street lights locally)?  They may be prepared to do it anyway, regardless of what websites list.

If not, I'd just get it done.  If somebody turns up to 'fix' it, then you'll know who should have done it in the first place.  

chrisw

I don't know the answer, but could you be held liable if there was a burglary or road accident or some other incident which could at least partly be attributed to the shielding?

pimento

I have sent a message to SSE who are the company who look after street lights generally in my city asking how I would go about asking.  I'll keep you posted (see what I did there?  LOL)

rach_k

chrisw said:

I don't know the answer, but could you be held liable if there was a burglary or road accident or some other incident which could at least partly be attributed to the shielding?

The shields don't affect light at street level, they just stop light coming in upstairs windows.   The shield on the light outside our house is probably only a few inches in height.  This isn't our light, but something like this (ours is smaller and on the other side):