Street lights making sleep difficult- too bright

[Streetlightarebright]

Moved into new townhouse a few months ago. It’s in a quiet residential street. There is one streetlight in the whole street which is bang opposite my house. At night the street is lit up like a football stadium and despite having blackout blinds (custom made so fit the windows perfectly) it shines really brightly into my bedroom. Because it’s a townhouse and my bedroom is on the third floor it’s level with the streetlight so that doesn’t help.

I contacted the council and they replied saying they can put a shade on it but I’d have to pay £95 😲😲 their reason being the streetlight was changed over to these fancy LED lights in 2017 so I’m responsible for paying (we moved in about 6 months ago)

I’m quite annoyed that they expect me to pay. It’s disrupting my sleep and the light is excessively bright. Has anyone ever contacted their council & got them to put a shade in for free? I’m wondering if there are any good arguments I could use?

It really is disrupting my sleep even with the blackout blind ☹️

To answer some questions - what I wanted was comments from people who have had a similar issue. I did make that clear in my original post.

It’s almost midnight and yet my street is lit up like a football stadium. It’s a quiet street, not on a main road, not near public amenities like a train station or bus stop so I don’t understand why we’re forced to endure this awful glaring white light.

Yes I could invest in curtains but my question was for views on how I could tackle the issue with the council. I’m not quite sure how a “shade” would help but the fact the council offer them just shows it’s a common problem & they are making money out of it. On their website there is a whole “complain about streetlight issues” section so in my area it’s obviously a problem. Just because some mumsnetters don’t have this problem doesn’t mean it’s not real!

I bet everyone in the street is also feeling the same, at least the nearest ones. Is it worth getting a group of people together and lobbying the council to make it more bearable? If it doesn't work then you would at least have a group of people to split the cost of paying for the cover.

But when you close your eyes you can't see anything. I say this as someone who sleeps with the light on.
Pay the money to the council if it will help. Or (presuming you have more than one bedroom) move into a bedroom that is not lit up by the street light.

OP - you should definitely take this up with the council further. It’s light pollution and not something that you should have to put up with. As others have said, it’s a growing problem and I remember reading an article about this a while ago.

@Notcontent

OP - you should definitely take this up with the council further. It’s light pollution and not something that you should have to put up with. As others have said, it’s a growing problem and I remember reading an article about this a while ago.

The led lights reduce light pollution, they don't stop you from seeing the night sky and provide targeted street lighting as most of the light goes down to where it is needed and not up into the sky.

Speak to the council. LED lights can be dimmed.

And I very much doubt that £95 comes close to the true cost of installing a shade - mobilising a team with a cherrypicked to install it is not cheap.

Bear in mind that the light has been there 3 years and none of your neighbours have been bothered to get a shade, so it can’t be that bad.

I bet your environmental health team don’t agree with your lighting team on this one! I lived next to a TfL building site for a while and it was floodlit at night. EH were really helpful although I moved house before we ever got anywhere with it. I’d contact EH, your councillor and I’d also check if there’s a councillor who leads on housing and/or EH. It’s really not on if it’s affecting your quality of life to this level.

Pay it. we all benefit from street lights, and £95 isn’t that much.
We have one of them (also led) directly opposite our house. we have blackout curtains plus blackout blinds, and the bedroom is dark.
Get the shade (directs light away from your window), and decent blackout curtains plus blinds, and you are fine.
i know you said you have professionally fitted ones, but if light goes through, the material isn’t up to the job.

Effective blackout blinds/curtains work, the company who have done yours clearly need to return and correct their work.

I used to live opposite a training ground, in winter the floodlights were often on until well after 11pm, I had blackout curtains in my sons bedroom and you would never have known that it was essentially daylight outside.

Sounds awful, couldn’t cope with that and it’s one thing I would eat beans on toast for week so to sort.

I’d pay the £95. Custom blinds don’t work in my experience as can make them. There are always gaps at the side and when you attach the blackout lining light bleeds through the stitching .

We have bloc blinds. They are in a frame that fits to the window. When this is down during the day it is nearly pitch black. A tiny bit of light bleeds in at side of the frame which could be sorted with decorator’s caulk but we haven’t as hard enough to see the dog on the floor when she comes in mornings as it is.

Have tried everything over the years and these are a game changer we found.

Hi OP,

We had this a few years ago, was not led but the light was right outside our window, I mean right there. We could touch it. All the bloody spider webs we used to get between it and our bedroom window was stupid.

Anyway we kept complaining to the council, it took 2 years to get them to turn the fucking thing off at midnight.

However, what we did for those two years was turn it off ourselves. You can get the keys online for them. You open the hatch on the light and flick the switch. The lock is like a screw, you have to turn the key like a screwdriver to loosen and open and then the same again to close and tighten the lock back up.

I'm sure some jobworths on here will say it's illegal, blah. However nothing happened to us in those two years. They do come out and switch it back on, but you just turn it back off. I'm guessing if you do get caught you could get a fine at most but really, who cares? It's unlikely to happen and when you can't sleep for days you do get to the point of saying fuck you and your light.

I should point out our light had a shade on but it was so close, made no difference.

Good luck, OP.

OP I have every sympathy with you on this issue. Unfortunately it is like anything else in life unless you have actual experience of the issue some people simply can not or will not understand the issue. We had two similar issues a few years ago in separate houses and very good quality black out curtains were the answer. Good luck.

Genius getting a streetlight key and turning it off. I’d do that.

Pay for the shade

Complain to the company that your blinds aren’t working

Buy curtains

Wear a mask

All these have been mentioned. Don’t think there us anything else you can do.

Wouldn’t it be a shame if a teenager’s football hit the light, eh?

Argos has a range of blackout curtains. Bought navy ones for my son’s room and they 100% work.

Even blackout curtains might not block all the light. You could get a pelmet and box it in. I though would start by talking to neighbours and see if you can get them on board to petition the council to turn the light off at midnight. You might also need to pay the money for the shade but for me that would be worth it if I could sleep.

Is anyone else struggling to understand the point of street lights which are turned off while it's dark?

@eaglejulesk Yep, kind of defeats the point of them doesn't 🙄.

As it's the only light on the street, I really don't think the council will agree to turning it off as and rightly so. This is the kind of thing you should take into account when viewing a property 🤷‍♂️

I lived next to a football stadium, just a roads width apart.
And they used to regularly leave the flood lights on until 11pm.
The only thing that helped was a portable blackout blind (use the Amazon one, it's 100 times better than the Gro Blind that always falls off).

It will work but it's a pain in the arse having to put it up every night.

If I had the option of paying £95 to stop being flooded by the lights then I would have done.

@Greenandcabbagelooking

Wouldn’t it be a shame if a teenager’s football hit the light, eh?

Well yes, complete waste of councils funds to replace.

Actually OP you do need posts about black out lining.

My daughters bedroom has the same problem you do but it only became a problem recently when the street light changed. Unlike you, we have been in our house long term it is so bright, it illuminates our upstairs hall from the landing window and we don’t need to turn the loo light on if visiting the loo in the middle of the night - coming into the loo window on the side of the house.

We had black out blinds made and fit professionally. Light still showed through at the sides. This is because blinds don’t cover very well - either fit inside the recess or outside

What worked was adding black out lined curtains John Lewis made and fit them, we specifically advised them about the street light when they came to measure. They are closer to the ceiling snd cover wider sections past the end of the window. No more light comes in.

@YerAWizardHarry

You live in a 3 story townhouse you're clearly not short or a bob or two, just pay the money

Townhouse in a nice part of town but cheaper than the average house price in the UK. We don't all live in the SE.

Can't help with the council but you get used to it, current house has same situation, can read without putting my light on! You get used to it!

The street lights go off here go off at midnight.
We had outside lights fitted to the house as it was dangerous coming home in pitch black darkness. Just pay the £95.