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Lewis White

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  1. Thank you Dominic, My informal chats with a few Local Authority Tree Officers are now a few years back. My worry is that every council seems to have different views. The idea of having a "Permanent Structure Planting" drawing for every significant planning application is to standardise the approach--so that there is a very simple, easily understood concept that the planners, developers and general public can understand. To be honest, I think that the idea would have to be imposed by national government. I really ought to put the idea forward to the RTPI and Town and Country Planning Association --as well as the LI . A new year resolution!
  2. I think that light pollution from street lighting has in fact reduced wonderfully, in the last decade, as a result of LED white light and in plcaes, white light sources such as compact flourescent tubes, replacing High Pressure Sodium (HPS) with its (at a distance) slightly purple-tinged glow). However, close to, the light was attractive, straw coloured, sun light rather bthan moonlight in effect. HPO light was actually a huge improvement (i.e far less polluting) on the previous orange glow (think Lucozade, think Irn Bru) given out by Low Pressure Sodium (LPS). The latter was ubiquitous in towns and many rural areas in the 50's 60's 70's 80's and 90's. It disfigured the night sky, with an overpwering orange coloured fog, particularly depressing and miserable in damp winter weather, washing all the streets and whole sky over london and towns across the UK, in a ghastly orange contamination. In some areas, cold blue/white Mercury lights ( a bit like a colder vesrion of moonlight) were selected instead of LPS back in the 60's when many councils still had Tungsten light bulbs in their street light columns. Around the country, street lighting is getting better, nt only with white light in lieu of orange, but also with far less upward light spillage, and with downward facing "cut off and semi-cut off , directional lighting. The old Low pressure sodim used to be called "Sodium Vapour lamps" which not only decribed their technical nature (the light being caused by an electric charge inside the long tunbes, in a vapour of sodoim) but described their environmental impact quite accurately too. We have lighting scientists / engineers and manufacturers to thank for inventing these improved lamps, particularly the nventor of LEDs. Plus the County and Borough lighting engineer sfor taking them up, and councillors for agreeing to use them. The biggest sky-obscurers now seem to me to be badly controlled and far too bright industrial lighting from warehouses and distrubtion centres in places like Swindon. The latter town's light at night is so ridiculously bright, it is a massive blot on the night time rural landscape of North Wessex. Over-bright domestic lights, security lights, sport field flood lights, and over-bright uplighters and outlighters and even many downlighters conspire to dazzle passers-by, disturb night flying insects like glow worms, and spoil the lives of owls and humans alike. The devisers of home and garden makeover programmes where back gardens are lit up like North sea oil rigs, and front gardens can be seen from outer space, have a lot to answer for. The battle against excessive, ill-focused, and disfiguring lighting is far from won, but the street lighting sector neesxs our praise for the work it has done in recent decades to clean up the skies.
  3. Hi, Further to Mark's comment, I would like to make a further point about navigation. If Connect is to be a useful tool, it needs to have an index now. The trouble with the LI Blogs is that, at present, it is an amorphous mass of miscellaneous entries. There is no structure , no classification into topics. It really needs a clear structure, of Topic Headings, into which every new topic can fits. eg Landscape design. Landscape planning. Landscape science. Landscape management. Ecology. Policy. Landscape engineering. Landscape technical. Landscape products. Landscape international .Landscape practice. Insurance Contracts Architecture. History. Art. Excuse me, I am not a blogger but am very clear as to the need for simple, understandable and logical communication. If members are to engage properly, in depth on topics of interest, we need those topics clearly laid out in a logical fashion. Acessibility and time saving are key !
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