The technical advice note is designed to conserve and enhance the Dark Skies across Cumbria and is the document is backed by many local and national supporting bodies, local planning and highway authorities, and demand from architects, communities, installers wanting to do the right thing with lighting, especially given Cumbria’s highly-valued environment. Loaded with striking illustrations and graphics, the publication covers good lighting principles, positive lighting outcomes delivered through getting lighting right, different forms of light pollution and their impacts, the planning and lighting design process and, crucially, what good practice looks like through visuals and examples.

The document sets a new benchmark by covering a whole region, rather than  just a Dark Sky Reserve or community; it has a policy goal of a net reduction in light pollution; is adopted by a wide range of endorsing organisations and communities and contains bespoke visual graphics to convey good lighting principles.

The Good Lighting Principles form a golden-thread throughout the technical advice note to deliver best practice.

Applying the high environmental quality of Cumbria, whether for landscape, biodiversity or heritage, the publicaion explains where current mainstream ‘standards’ do not deliver environmentally sustainable lighting. 

The note helps to deliver a net reduction in light pollution. In doing so, more people will be able to see the wonder of the night sky, fulfilling a basic human need for self-identity, and placing yourself in the wider universe.