'Too bright' street lights set to be replaced

Swanage is switching to a newer type of LED lantern (stock image)

Over-bright street lights are set to be replaced after residents complained about not being able to sleep.

More than 100 ultra-bright LED lights were fitted in Swanage, Dorset, less than two years ago.

Ward councillor Bill Trite said the lighting was "much too harsh".

Dorset Council said they would be "swiftly" replaced with a newer type of LED lantern used elsewhere in the county.

Speaking at a meeting of Dorset Council, Mr Trite said nothing had been done about the issue since he raised it in February.

He said the lights were a "serious night-time nuisance".

The lights were "obviously much too harsh, intense and intrusive for the residential roads concerned," he added.

The council's new portfolio holder for highways, Jon Andrews, said the lights in question were composites made from the outer shell and lens of the old sodium lights, retrofitted internally with LED lamps. 

He said they remained legal, but advice from the council’s director of public health was that they should be replaced with the newer type of LED lantern.

"The newer lanterns are designed to direct light downward onto the highway, limiting light spillage outside the bounds of the highway or towards neighbouring properties and residences," he said.

He said he had asked for the lights to be replaced “as swiftly as possible”.