MONDAY 9 JUNE 2003

PROFESSOR PAUL MURDIN, DR HELEN WALKER, MR GUY HURST, MR BOB MIZON AND DR CHRIS BADDILEY

  Q60  Dr Iddon: One way of getting things rolling in a legislative sense, leylandii and the High Hedges Bill has done that, is through Parliamentary bills, one started in the Lords, one started in the Commons in the current Parliament. My question is have you thought about using Parliamentary processes and encouraging peoples to put down Early Day Motions or to take out a Ten-Minute Rule Bill or, even better, a Private Member's Bill?

  Mr Mizon: There have been two MPs who have shown interest in pursuing such courses and they have not finally done so.

  Q61  Dr Turner: Just a couple of quickies. First on the question of regulation, is it not simpler rather than trying to measure light levels to regulate by allowing the use of only approved designs of lighting?

  Dr Baddiley: I think it might be simpler in the long run, yes.

  Q62  Dr Turner: So that is a yes. Secondly, the first-class telescope sites around the world, they must get threatened by light pollution at various times and have to take measures to protect themselves. Can you tell us a little about the measures that they take and tell us whether there is any value in using some of these measures in the United Kingdom?

  Dr Walker: Certainly I have seen the Canary Islands Sky Law which is a legal document passed by Royal Decree and that covers telescopes on Tenerife and La Palma and that is a very fierce, very restrictive document because it is a premiere world-class site, one of the best sites in the world and the Spanish people are very concerned to keep it in good order. The legislation does not just cover lights, it also covers industry and things that might create dust or anything like that so they do not just restrict lighting, they also restrict the actual activities of people. Australia is another case which has very strict laws. These are all international agreements and in all international observatories they are monitored by site directors.

  Professor Murdin: The site directors have a light pollution office in all of these observatories and the usual technique is repeated photographs of the landscape around the observatories and repeated measurement of the flux of light from artificial sources that comes into the telescope. I think it might be difficult to carry out the same measurements through telescopes, for example in the environmental health officer sort of context.

  Chairman: Thank you very, very much indeed for answering our questions. We will put out a report and perhaps even there will be a debate in Parliament which you can come and listen to. The excellence of that debate will depend on what you have told us here. Thank you very much indeed.