What can I do about new car park lighting at back of our garden?

[1stMrsF]

We've recently moved into a new build property on a large development neighbouring a nursing home. The carpark backs onto our back garden. I came home last night to find that they had put up 3 massive new lamp posts in the carpark, one of which is directly behind our house, which flood the garden, living room and back bedrooms with really bright white light. I'm a bit dismayed to say the least - even when we get curtains in the living room (we haven't quite got round to that yet!), it's going to make our garden really brightly lit, and I don't necessarily want to have to draw curtain and blinds the second the light comes on. I'm at a bit of a loss what to do. I feel that if it was residential property I'd expect a neighbour to have at least spoken to me about their plans before putting up something so big. What do you think? So I feel it would be reasonable to go and speak to the manager about it in the first instance?

I also wonder whether they would have needed planning permission? I've searched the council website and can't find any planning applications for that address, but I'm not sure what else to look for?

TIA for any advice or suggestions.

If the lamp posts are over a certain height and brightness, I think they may need planning consent. Call the council and find out, I'd be extremely annoyed in your shoes.

Light can be a statutory nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 - call environmental health and have a chat

On the one hand, bright lights are regulated under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, so you could complain to Environmental Health.

On the other, public car parks have to have decent lighting - they can be negligent if the lighting is too poor. This usually means that lights in car parks are brighter than lights elsewhere.

You'll need to speak to the council to find out if the current brightness is allowable.

Blackout curtains might help in the meantime.

These kinds of lights are usually on timers btw OP rather than on all night. That is definitely something to be suggested if there is planning, etc. Lighting on the building which can be turned on as needed to light the areas closer to would be better for overnight use than leaving lampposts on all night.

Thanks for these replies, that's really helpful as I felt that there must be some sort of environmental issue. It's also given me some confidence that I'm not being unreasonable! I can see that the lights that are next to their own windows have bulbs that are black on one side, so perhaps requesting that they change the bulbs to those might be a good starting point.

It's possible to have lights that are directed downwards and away from neighbours, you would be completely reasonable to ask them to change the lights. If they don't make any changes, contact the council.

I would contact the council for info, as well as contacting the owners. Lights can be angled and adjusted so that they light up the area that they are meant to light.

I would also consider planting some trees along the boundary for the long term.