“All generations and cultures have looked up and wondered at the stars. But sadly this part of our shared environment has been degraded. Unless they live in remote rural areas, young people may grow up without ever seeing a truly dark starry sky – and that’s a real deprivation” – Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) has long fought for the protection and improvement of dark skies and against the spread of unnnecessary artificial light. CPRE has recently created new maps of Britain’s light pollution and dark skies, giving an accurate picture of how much light is spilling up into the night sky: http://nightblight.cpre.org.uk/maps/
These include detailed interactive maps for England showing districts, counties, National Parks and Areas of National Beauty, and, at a wider scale, National Character Areas.
We hope that Parish Councils can use the maps as evidence to inform neighbourhood plans and to shape local decisions about lighting. such as street lights owned by Parish Councils.
Everyone who may be concerned about light pollution can look up their local area on the CPRE interactive map and use this as evidence to make representations to their local councillors or to help you find the nearest dark skies, to escape from nearby light pollution and experience a truly dark starry night sky.