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Baroness Maddock moved Amendment No. 130A:
- After Clause 42, insert the following new clause—
The noble Baroness said: My Lords, I beg to move Amendment No. 130A. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that lighting is brought under planning control through provisions in the Bill for enabling regulations. At an earlier stage we discussed the problems of light pollution and its damaging effect on the environment. We discussed the problems of viewing the stars in the night sky, and some of us recognised that rural areas that suffer from light
The situation at present is that artificial light is not classed as development. Regardless of the intrusiveness of the light beams, if the fixture does not significantly alter the appearance of a building, if it is not a free standing structure, the light cannot be classed as development and is not subject to planning controls. Similarly, light is not specifically listed as a statutory nuisance. While it is possible to use statutory nuisance provisions to control light pollution, there is a lot of confusion about whether and how light pollution can be classed as a statutory nuisance. As a result, many local authorities and environmental health officers are reluctant to take action.
The problem of light pollution was recognised by the Science and Technology Committee in another place. The report, Light Pollution and Astronomy, was produced by the Committee in 2003. It made some recommendations for action to Government. The main recommendations were that making obtrusive light a statutory nuisance would mean that local council environmental health officers could take legal action against serious "bad neighbour" light polluters.
Another recommendation was new and effective planning guidance on light pollution for local planners, in order for them to draw up local planning policies to tackle light pollution and to refuse planning permission for new developments with bad lighting schemes. Better government guidance for local councils in their role as highways authorities was also suggested, so that they install better-directed, more efficient street and road lighting as they deal with the massive backlog of old and dilapidated equipment. We have made better progress on street lighting than we have on other aspects.
The Government took few immediate measures following the committee's report. However, they have stated they believe that local authorities should include policies on external lighting in their development plans. The Government also have a commitment to issuing planning policy to local planning authorities on light pollution and writing model planning conditions to minimise the adverse effect of outdoor lighting. The Government have also considered making serious light pollution a statutory nuisance, and many people who are concerned about it would welcome the action. However, nothing is happening quickly.
An amendment was tabled to the Bill in another place, and the Government were not up front about it. The Minister, Yvette Cooper, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, said that,
When we discussed the matter at the previous stage, the Minister expressed sympathy but he was not particularly forthcoming. Many people believe—I am grateful to the CPRE for much of the briefing—that there is scope to use the planning system to control light pollution more effectively and to make it more certain. Many of the issues I have raised today are ones with which people have tried to grapple, and this is another where they come up against legislation giving them insufficient support.
The amendment proposes introducing statutory enabling provisions and uses the model of the advertisement clause in the principal Act—the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. I hope that the Minister will look on it favourably, or at least come forward with something else. The advantages of my proposals are that they would provide a self-contained code through regulations for the control of lighting and they would not depend on the lighting requiring planning permission or constituting a nuisance. The nature of lighting requiring specific consent would be defined in the regulations, and enforcement will therefore be much easier. If consent were granted, it could be made subject to conditions.
There is a precedent for this approach; the amendment is based on the regime applicable to outdoor advertisements. I hope that the Minister will be a little more forthcoming than he was when we last discussed the issue. I beg to move.
Lord Bridges: My Lords, I introduced a similar amendment in Committee and I was encouraged by the wide variety of Members who chose to speak to it and to support it. It was encouraging to hear the Minister say in reply that he believed it would be possible to introduce an annex to PPS23, which would give local authorities some power of control. I hope that today the Government Front Bench will be able to give us further information about their plans.
Lord Rooker: My Lords, the noble Baroness is quite right that the matter was raised in Committee, but I think that I was most forthcoming on the issue recently in response to a Question on the issue of light pollution four or five weeks ago. I remember waving in the House the department's already existing publication on guidance, no details or references to which I have here tonight. In seven minutes at Question Time, with the Questions and Answers, I managed to get quite a lot of good information on to the record, because one is much more disciplined at Question Time.
When a similar amendment was proposed in Committee, we had a great deal of sympathy with the intention of the amendment—which remains the case. We said that we agreed that excessive, poorly designed, badly aimed lighting can have significant adverse effects on people, wildlife, the amenity and those who look at the sky. But we should remember that good, well designed lighting is an effective way to reduce road accidents, reduce crime and the fear of crime, and enhance community safety; it has a very important role
New legislation could have significant implications both for those who wish to put up exterior lighting and for local planning authorities who would have to deal with the additional applications. It would be difficult to design a feasible means of assessing external light for statutory planning control purposes. The legislation must be enforceable and practical—that would be a key part of the problem. If we are to have an enforcement regime, somebody has to be able to measure and make an assessment that will stand up in court.
Bad lighting practice—and there is a lot of it about—is best dealt with by raising public awareness, providing policy advice and guidance, and by more effective use of the existing planning powers, such as the development plan policies on external lighting and the use of planning conditions to mitigate the adverse effects of external lighting.
As was said, the Science and Technology Select Committee in the other place considered the issue and produced its report on light pollution and astronomy on 6 October last year. It did not recommend the introduction of new planning legislation. It recommended that obtrusive light be made a statutory nuisance. I understand that at present Defra is considering that recommendation as an option; it is that government department's responsibility.
The committee also recommended the introduction of new planning policy guidance on light pollution, and we have said that we will act on that recommendation. We will introduce—as I said in Committee and at Question Time—an annexe to Planning Policy Statement 23, as mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Bridges, which deals with planning and pollution control. We will produce an annexe specifically on light pollution. We will send clear signals to local planning authorities that they should take the issue of light pollution as seriously as they do other types of pollution when considering planning applications. The annexe will have the same status as the parent planning policy statement and will be a material consideration in the preparation of regional spatial strategies and local development documents, and in the consideration of planning applications. So there would be no get-out; it would be a material consideration in terms of whatever was proposed.
Given the potentially significant implications that new legislation would have on local planning authorities, which will have to deal with the additional applications and proposed new policy guidance, we hope that the matter will not be pursued.
As I remember waving around that day, we have already produced guidance—for example, on lighting in the countryside—towards good practice, which provides practical advice to local authorities, developers and the public on what can be done to lessen the adverse effects of external lighting. This
We are positive about this issue, which has been looked at by an all-party committee in Parliament and by those outside—I remember seeing the maps that were produced, and, I think, photographs or maps of light pollution produced by CPRE in its very useful document circulated in the autumn of last year to coincide with the Select Committee hearings.
We are positive about it, and, boringly repetitive though it may be to say it, we do not think that it is right for the Bill. We will act to bring in the bad practice of light pollution—covering regional spatial strategies, development plans and particular planning applications—in such a way that it will have to be taken account of, as it will be a material consideration. I regret to say that I do not have a date for that. I hope that I will have something more to report at Third Reading, although I also hope that we will not raise every issue again then, because we will not get the job done.
As for the timing for the proposed annex to Policy Planning Statement 23, there is no date in my notes. We will work with stakeholders to consider what might be included in the annex, which will then be subject to wider consultation. Planning Policy Statement 23 is due to be published this spring, and the annex will follow it, once the work with stakeholders and the consultation are complete. That sounds like the summer before the autumn of this year to me.
Baroness Maddock: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that full reply. I agree with him that it is about striking the right balance as regards the need to make sure that places are sufficiently lit to protect people from crime and make areas safe. However, there have been problems.
I thought that the amendment, which was recommended to me by the Campaign to Protect Rural England, was rather imaginative and dealt with the question of advertisements. I thought that it was a good way of doing that, and I did not see that it would be particularly onerous. It would make things clear. However, I welcome the fact that the Government are giving the matter serious consideration and will bring out an annex.
One gets worried about yet another consultation. Later on in this stage, I may have criticisms to make on some of the consultations. I hope that it will not take too long and that the Government will listen.
People are concerned that there should be something in place that enables local authorities to give the matter the priority that it needs and take the action that they want to take. I shall read carefully what the Minister said, but, in the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 43 [Applications for planning permission and certain consents]:
"DEVELOPMENT ORDERS: EXTERNAL LIGHTING
(1) Within two years of the commencement of section 40, the appropriate authority shall make regulations for restricting or regulating the use of external lighting so far as appears to the authority to be expedient in the interests of amenity or public safety.
(2) The appropriate authority is—
(a) the Secretary of State in relation to England;
(b) the National Assembly for Wales in relation to Wales."
"any legislation would have to be practically enforceable. That would require the ability to make assessments that are sufficiently robust and clear to survive arguments in the courts where the cases may end up".—[Official Report, Commons Standing Committee A, 21/10/03; col. 255.]
That is precisely what people will be asking for, and I hope that the Minister will be sympathetic.
9 p.m.
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