At last week’s town council meeting, North Tawton Town Council decided to approach Devon County Council engineers over the unsuitability of the recently-installed street lamps.

This is the most recent move to resolve an ongoing issue with overly-bright street lamps in the town that residents say are keeping them awake and are disruptive to noturnal wildlife.

Cllr Christian Martin, who brought the issue to the table, described the lights in the Square as ‘hideously bright’ and argued that there was no need for the county council to replace the lamps with new LED lanterns.

He said: ‘I said to county councillor James McInnes that there was nothing wrong with the lamp posts. These new ones are hideously bright. They would scare away any animal. Somebody in the county council should have consulted with us – it’s a Conservation Area. The lights need to be rectified.’

In response to the concern, councillors agreed they would approach a Devon County Council engineer to ask why the lights needed replacing and why the town council had not been consulted. Town council chairperson Cllr Ruth Testa, added: ‘We are a town but we are also quite rural and they have not given any consideration to that.’ The county council is able to place a shield over a very bright light which would help to direct the light away from bedroom windows and other sensitive areas but such shields are currently missing from the Square’s new streetlamps and are therefore causing too much light pollution.