Keeping the lights turned off

Andrew Griffith MP | 1st October 2021 | Comment

Light pollution means most of us rarely see the full beauty of the sky at night. Stargazing MP Andrew Griffith plans to change that

I founded the APPG for Dark Skies – together with the Astronomer Royal and Lord Martin Rees – shortly after being elected to parliament in 2019. I wanted future generations to be able to see the stars and the Milky Way, something that has already become impossible in many parts of the UK due to light pollution.

Since I was a child, I have always been inspired by the stars, distant galaxies and how the vastness of space puts things into context. Growing up near the sodium glow of London, stars were a rarity until I travelled as a student in the Sahara desert. There I saw how breathtaking a truly dark sky can be.

My constituency contains the South Downs National Park, the only official “dark sky site” in southern England. Light pollution is entirely manmade and we are the first generation in the whole of human history where a majority are not able to see a clear night sky. Up to 61 per cent of people in the UK live in an area with severe light pollution, meaning they could see fewer than ten stars.

In the APPG for Dark Skies, we are not astronomers (or, as I once called them, astrologers) but we are legislators with an interest in changing the law – planning laws in particular.

Following a consultation with over 170 experts and members of the public, we have published a 10-point plan that the government could enact in order to tackle light pollution.

All of the actions would …

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