According to The British Astronomical Association the chance that future generations will no longer be able to see the stars in all but the most isolated parts of the World, is fast becoming a reality.

The Worlds media constantly brings awareness of climate change, the Ozone layer and Co2 emissions. The current issues of climate change are very much linked with the disappearance of the stars above us. Mr Mizon of the Campaign for Dark Skies said "If it was not for light pollution, everyone in Britain could see the northern lights around 6 times a year." He commented that all may not be lost and with some effort, consideration and forward planning this erosion can be halted or even reversed.

The British Astronomical Society, along with the Campaign for Rural England, are trying to make people aware of the more responsible and efficient way of using artificial light. Some of the worst offenders of light pollution are Street lights, Sports stadiums, Ports, Harbours, Car parks... and increasingly, P.I.R security lights on people's homes.

The U.K currently has only 11% of truly dark sky left and between 1993 and 2000 light pollution increased by a staggering 25%. The British Astronomical Association also calculates that over 100 million pounds worth of tax payer's electricity is wasted every year by street lights in Great Britain, with 15% + of the light going up into the night sky. Alarmingly this wastage also produces approximately 830,000 Tonnes of Co2 emissions each year, contributing to the mounting global climate issues. As for the ubiquitous security flood lights on our homes...a modern diesel car would have to travel 1.2 Billion Km to produce the same amount of Co2 as all the home security lights in Britain produce in a year.

In Dorset, the County Council have recently secured a 25 year programme to replace all current street lighting stocks under the Private Financial Initiative scheme (PFI). The company behind the PFI partnership is Électricité de France (EDF)

EDF Group also owns and maintains 58 Nuclear power stations (2004). EDF energy, part of the Group, has the 100 million pound 25 year installation and maintenance contract for the new Street lighting scheme under the name of Dorset lighting Ltd. From January 2006 the EDF Group was 87.3% owned by the French state. Andrew Brown, Chancellor Gordon Brown's brother is head of media relations at EDF energy. Chancellor Brown having recently been on Sky news, proclaimed his "New green values" however his Brother was unavailable for comment on his employers use of inefficient street lighting.

Dorset's contract starts in March 2007 with Weymouth and the Isle of Portland, home to Olympic sailing events in 2012 being installed first. Lord Coe, the driving force behind the Olympic bid, recently sent a letter to the British Astronomical Association assuring them that all lighting for the Olympic event premises will be sensitive to environmental and energy issues. The bulk of all other work in Dorset is to be carried out in the first 5 years.

Mr Maidstone Project manager for the scheme said, "We have a zoning system from the towns working outwards. We will not be using full cut off lights in the Towns, as it is not physically practical or financially viable. We will use the bowl type lights instead, but in rural areas we will be using more restricted lighting".

Dorset County Council website states however that, "The new lighting scheme would take into consideration light pollution and there will be an environmentally enlightened future for Dorset street lighting."

The energy wasting and light polluting deeper `bowl` lights appear to make a mockery of their Web statement. When asked, Mr Maidstone appeared unwilling to confirm the per-unit cost of the more polluting lights in his new scheme so as to make a comparison against energy efficient and less polluting lights difficult. He said "l do not know what the cost is and I am not sure I am allowed to give you that information anyway".

Our inside source told us, "A typical price for the replacement of a standard column would be £700.  Of this, almost half of the cost is the charge made by the Regional Electricity Company for the electrical service transfer. Sources tell us that a full "cut off" Street light is £365 excluding fitting.

Bob Mizon, Author of the book `Light Pollution: responses and remedies` is the National coordinator for the Campaign for Dark Skies. He said," What Mr Maidstone said is utter nonsense. There have been other Towns that have successfully used full cut off lights and they have not had to use any more lights than before, to do the same job." He continued, " It seems to me that most Councils are saying that people in Towns are second class citizens and do not deserve to see the night Sky, whereas people in the rural areas do. However Newcastle upon Tyne replaced their street lighting with cut off lights very successfully. "Most European countries do not have any light pollution laws in place, England could be a leader and set examples. Deep bowl lighting is so old fashioned and unnecessary, I am surprised any local authority would even contemplate it."

The Devon County Council recently recognised these problems and is contemplating switching off some street lights, or installing lower wattage bulbs in the hope of becoming a leader as a "Green" County. Unfortunately for the people of Dorset it would appear that the new lighting scheme will do very little to lessen the light and Co2 pollution contribution given off by their Towns and Cities street lights.

In past years Dorchester has been in the Headlines for having the worst Christmas lights in England, now it would appear that their Towns will be part of the worst street lights as well.

In 2005 a new law, the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act, was introduced. This applies to artificial light emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or to cause nuisance. This new law enables people who have intrusive lighting near them to approach the Authorities for remedy. Unfortunately this falls far short of the new regional laws in countries like Italy, that state there is to be no light emitted at or above the horizontal level on all new residential and commercial light fittings. This new U.K. law will not cover street lighting, a major cause of light pollution and energy waste.