Light Pollution

This is another environmental issue which has become topical in recent years. Reports in the press have been warning of the disappearance of our night skies and the profound effect this is having on wildlife and our habitat generally.

The St Austell area is one which has seen a drastic increase in light pollution in the last ten years. As the population continues to grow and development with it, this has become an issue of concern to those who would seek to preserve the quality of life and unique ambience of the Cornish landscape.

PIX OF LIGHT POLLUTION MAPS http://www.carlyonbaywatch.co.uk/cornishg16052003.html

Cornwall has been a bit of a property hotspot since 2002. Whenever something is for sale or an investment opportunity is being offered, glossy leaflets promoting the products are sent out in box loads. Such brochures paint a poetic and seductive picture of the particular 'dream' being peddled. They offer an enticing vision of a future their target market might want to buy into. We've all read them. But there is always another side to the story.

Imagine this typical Cornish vista....

If you were in a boat on the sea at night, between the two headlands which frame St Austell Bay, the Gribben and Black Head, looking back at land, you would see a picturesque Cornish scene, five or six coastal settlements, Porthpean, Duporth, Charlestown, Carlyon Bay, Par and Polkerris hugging the shoreline with clusters of pretty lights. You would see the eerie illumination and ghostly steam plumes of the Imerys plant at Par Docks, an industrial but low level and largely unobtrusive structure which has been an integral part of this view for generations.

It would be an affecting, peaceful scene.

Half way along the bay, below the charming, subtle, Art Deco aspect of the Carlyon Bay Hotel, you would see the footprint of the Cornwall Coliseum buildings, tucked into the cliff at low level. The beach itself is nearly a mile long. You would scarcely notice the built structures upon it.

Now, imagine instead, that 65 per cent of that mile is covered with a large, Costa-style development of 511 flats and service buildings stretching around the contours of the land for nearly the whole length of the beach. Imagine those flats stacked on top of each other until they almost reach the top of the cliff. Each glass fronted box is a shiny holiday home, most have splendid sea views - their blinds are open to capture the night scene.

Next, imagine those flats illuminated. Picture each snaking walkway leading to those flats flanked by light. See the glowing orange penumbra radiating outwards and upwards over the whole development. The nature of the coastline at night is now altered for good. Gone in a flash is the Cornish ambience of the previous scene.

Like the people of the coastal settlements around it, from your boat you would not see Eutopia, but instead it's opposite, a huge beached Titanic of a stucture, isolated but dominating the rest of the bay, lit up like Blackpool illuminations.

The irony of this situation, if you, in your boat, only knew it, would be that a recent planning application submitted by the developer to erect two illuminated signs of 1060mm by 1500mm were, by 'reason of their size, illumination and appearance', turned down by Restormel Borough Council Planning Department because it was considered that they 'would represent an incongruous feature within the residential, semi rural character of the locality.'

Unfortuntately this last part of the story, about the planning application, is not imaginary. Set against against the backdrop of the huge, flourescent picture painted in the imaginary scene above, would you not agree that such a planning decision stretches the bounds of belief?

CBW, whilst not arguing with the outcome, are certainly left in the dark about the logic behind it.