Light Pollution - Gt Leighs Racecourse
Reported anonymously at 00:43, Thu 28 August 2008
Sent to Chelmsford Borough Council and Essex County Council 7 minutes later
The evening & night-time light pollution from Great Leighs racecourse on Tues & Thursday evenings is causing a serious environmental disturbance for a massive population around Great Leighs. The bright lights of the racecourse shine directly across the country-side for several miles, appeearing as if a line of bright flood-lights across the landscape, and are plain & bright as far as Ford End, Great Waltham & Great Dunmow, more than 6 miles away. The nightglow creates a bright transluscent glow that illuminates the landscape until after 12:30am at night (Thurs 27/8/2008), shining into windows making it necessary to pull curtains to creat darkness, even in the middle of nowhere. Something must be done to reduce the environmental impact of these lights.
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Updates
The County & local Borough Council have updated me regularly on the progress if tsting that is ongoing, and the modifications to the lighting scheme that have been agreed with the operators. I understand that hoods are being fitted to the lights to limit the amount of light shining up into the night sky. Further, the extreme cases to date have been during prolonged testing phases at full lighting power levels, which, during normal operation, will be lowered between races to much lower ambient levels. Council officers have emailed regularly with updates, and appear determined to manage this situation to a reasonable resolution.
New photos taken at night racing at Great Leighs on 6th November 2008 from a distance of 2 miles. This is a very bad example of overspill and upward sky glow, which gives sports lighting a bad name. You can find good examples of light control control at Kempton Park racecourse, which manages the balance between the course needs and its responsibility to the local and night sky environment more responsibly.
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