Light nuisance

Lights are a part of everyday life, providing safety and security.

But badly designed or installed lights can be annoying and affect people's quality of life.

What you can do
If someone's lights are affecting you the best thing to do is to let them know. They may not realise that they are causing a problem and may be able to adjust their lighting to fix it. Find out how to solve a problem with your neighbour.

Just being able to see someone's light isn't classed as a nuisance, the light needs to be affecting you where you normally spend your time, such as your living room, bedroom or garden.

Reporting a light problem

If you are still being affected by the light problem please report it to us.

We need to know:

the address that the light is coming from
when it happens and how long it has been going on
how it is affecting you - such as lighting up your room, stopping you sleeping

We can't investigate anonymous complaints. We need your name and address because we will need to visit your property.

We won't share your name and address with the person causing the problem. But in exceptional circumstances your details may be quoted if your evidence is used in court.

Some lighting is essential for safety and security reasons - such as transport hubs including railways, bus stations and goods vehicle depots. We can't take any action against these types of light - find out more here.

Photos can help us with our enquiries - but don't take photos if you feel it isn't safe.

Report a light problem

Protecting your privacy - find out how we keep your information safe.

What we can do

We will check how the light affects you from inside your home.

We can talk to the person or business that is causing the light problem, and explain what action they need to take. We will try and resolve the issue informally, but can take a more formal approach if necessary.

Notices and prosecution

If the problem doesn't improve and we find that it is causing a statutory nuisance we will serve a legal notice on the person responsible. If they don't take the action required in the notice we could take further legal action against them.

If they rent their property, they may be breaching their tenancy agreement. We will also check if the light problem breaches a planning application or building control notice.