PUT THAT LIGHT OUT

The American Express Community Stadium in Brighton is creating devastating and distressing light pollution. Powerful lights are used all night long to help the grass grow, but they are so badly designed that the consequential light spill is the worst incident in a hundred square miles. This is having a devastating impact on wildlife, particularly insects as well as destroying the night sky for hundreds of thousands of people, causing distressing impacts on wellbeing, and preventing astronomy and night photography.

There is new scientific evidence (Over a hundred and fifty papers summarised in Owens et Al 2019) which shows that insects are declining eight times faster than birds and mammals at a terrifying 2.5% a year and light pollution is a key driver of this insect apocalypse. If we lose these insects, soon the whole ecosystem collapses. It is a very real threat.

Light pollution is the easiest thing to fix as there are no clean up costs. We knew how to turn off the lights in the Blitz. If we fix this problem, we are no longer killing insects, we are contributing less to the climate emergency and we are saving money. It is a three nil win.

We have been calling on Brighton and Hove Albion FC to please PUT THAT LIGHT OUT, but sadly, despite nearly twelve thousand signatories to our petition on Change.org there has not been a constructive response to date. Brighton and Hove City Council have taken no effective action. We therefore need to take legal advice from Leigh Day to see what we can do to address the problem locally and nationally.

The cost of initial advice and the first step of legal action is £750. The costs of any subsequent legal action would be additional. Premier league football is a very wealthy and powerful interest, but we need to stand up and win back our skies.