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 ☹️

The Bloc blinds (generic name is cassette blinds) are the only type that stop light getting round the edges as a PP has said.
And the EH department are who you want at the council. The other complaints about street lighting will be when it's off, not when it's on.

Just pay the £95. I did and it's been worth every penny.

We have a similar light outside our townhouse, but the shades are fitted to all lights in the street tunnelling the light to the ground. These were a requirement of the build as we live right on the edge of a site significant environmental significance.
My daughter whose room is on the top floor sleeps with her blind open as the shade is exceptionally effective.
£95 seems a bargain to have this problem fixed it will a minuscule part of the cost - try hiring a cherry picker.

Close your eyes? Move house? Ffs

You need a pair of BlindSides!

www.amazon.co.uk/BlindSides-Light-Blocker-22-150/dp/B015B86GNK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=blackout+side+channels&sprefix=blackout+side+&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1605345869&sr=8-1

I can’t function without sleep so I’d pay the £95 then and there and if that didn’t work then I’d start the hassling of the council etc

@Aquicknamechange2019 Does it make a big difference? Just looking at the house across the road, the light is right outside her house and she has a blackout blind.

@CountFosco maybe its just the perception of townhouses where I live

DH lived in a townhouse when we met (new house but in a very badly off area of Manchester). It was basically a two bed semi as the ground floor was garage, utility/study, then kitchen and living room, then 2 beds at the top.

But when you close your eyes you can't see anything. I say this as someone who sleeps with the light on.

pretty sure leaving light on 24h a day in prison cells is classified as a form of torture, and is illegal

Most of us cannot sleep properly with lights on, it's a terrible idea.

More Interesting news. LEA have put out a list of "base" schools and one is about half the distance of the very far one. It's also smaller (PAN looks like 20 but it appears to have lots of space as it was open to all pupils full time in June when social distancing was in place). The LEA hasn't finally approved these but current number of bases is about 1 and they wanted 20+ expressions of interest and got 4 so unless anything goes very wrong both schools could have them this school year.

@drspouse

Not sure how this will help with the lamp post!

We have a streetlight outside our bedroom window and we’re a 3 storey house too so it’s like it’s shining straight in. Blackout blind and blackout curtains were needed to stop it as the light just came through cracks in the blind. If that hadn’t worked I would have paid for a shade next.

Good sleep is worth paying for.

I would complain to the council. They should rectify it so that it is not impacting you. Not sure why you should pay out TBH for shades, when they could change the bulb, dim it etc. Could they change the angle of it? Many options. However, my local council is absolutely useless so all that being said, you may get nowhere with that.

A few people have mentioned eye masks. Have you tried this?

Our neighbour opposite has a crazy bright security light that is triggered multiple times a night, especially if it's windy. Lights up our room like a floodlight. I now wear an eye mask and never notice it at all.

Although I am looking increasingly ludicrous at bedtime, with my eye mask, earplugs, silk hair bonnet to try to prevent frizz and occasionally a nose strip if I'm feeling stuffy

They can dim those lights, they just don't like to. We have just succeeded in having all 5 on our road dimmed. They did them 1 at a time, insisting with each one they weren't too bright and dimming them would increase risk for pedestrians and drivers.

All that bloody time wasted to put right what they were told would be a problem when they first started replacing them.

And they are repeating that stupidity across the district!

A quick google tells me they will be rolling this out in my county too. They are not doing my borough first so I'll be interested to see how it pans out in other boroughs and if they will take heed of any complaints. I live in a row of terraces and there's a light just outside my neighbour's window nearby. We've got blackout blinds but may need curtains too

@notangelinajolie

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.

I will wake up frequently though if there's any light, even clock digits wake me. If a lamp, even if low is on, then I will literally wake fretfully in blocks of less than an hour.

@userxx huge difference.

We sometimes drive home over a very high hill. When we see our pleasant market town at night it looks like an airport or giant UFO now they've installed LED lights. It is just overwhelming. The lights need moderating.

@oneglassandpuzzled

I think I know that, is it the pleasant market town of Roswell?

It’s not! There’s obviously a lot of this around 🙂

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@oneglassandpuzzled

I think I know that, is it the pleasant market town of Roswell? [/quote]

(Shame there's no UFO emoji)

🛸

Honestly? I’d just pay it