NEW outdoor lighting will be installed at a doctor’s surgery after neighbours complained existing lights were “intrusive”.
Councillors have given permission for replacement lighting of car park, driveway and building access lights at the Old Station Surgery in Brecon Road, Abergavenny and a condition will require they are switched off by 9pm every night and aren’t used before 7am.
Planning officer Phil Thomas told members of Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee: “The new lights proposed will be LED and a much lower lux and positioned not to spread light to surrounding areas.”
The lights will be positioned on top of the existing seven lighting poles across the car park including four behind the surgery building and three on the access road.
Bats are present in the area and Mr Thomas said it’s hoped the lower illumination will create dark corridors and he said there is no objection from the council’s ecologist.
Cantref Labour councillor Sara Burch said while the surgery is in a neighbouring ward residents in Pen y Pound are impacted and told the committee: “The lights shine very brightly in their home.
“I feel it will be a great improvement and very much more what should, perhaps, have been provided in the first place.”
The committee also discussed if the condition restricting the times the lights can be used would apply at weekends but planning officers clarified the condition would apply seven days a week, and it would be for the surgery to decide if it wanted to use the lights, during the permitted hours, at weekends.
Mr Thomas cautioned against being “over restrictive” by specifying the lights couldn’t be used at weekends and said: “What happens if they need to open at weekends? Heaven forbid we should have another pandemic or there is a training day.”
Usk independent Meirion Howells asked if the lights would be switched off automatically to avoid the potential for “human error” but Mr Thomas said that is a management issue for the surgery which couldn’t be controlled by the planning department.
Permission for the lights was approved unanimously at the March 4 committee meeting, with the application first made in August 2023.
