Lights on Kendal Castle could be shielded if plans to tackle light pollution get the go ahead.

It’s one of a range of ideas recently debated at Kendal Town council.

Representatives from Cumbria Vision are proposing that a light pollution order could resolve light pollution quite quickly around Kendal.

Jack Ellerby from The Friends of the Lake District dark skies project, is also pushing for the Kendal town council to fund research to tackle light pollution in the area. He says,” the moves if funded right, would have a massive impact on biodiversity not to mention that 85% of the population has never seen the Milky Way. " Further saying; “we just need to get the right light shining then educate the young that dark isn’t bad and light is not all good.

Councillor Giles Archibald from South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) who attended the meeting says he has the answer, with a new initiative he has created saying, ”I opened up a fund for biodiversity projects, and suggest that Kendal town council could apply for extra funding to research what’s needed. SLDC has a climate change community fund" and Kendal town council's environment and highways committee also have a pot of money to be used for projects that will improve biodiversity."

Kendal town council agreed to provide funding of £1,000 from the biodiversity pot while Cllr Archibald also suggested that the town council could approach SLDC for additional funding.

The projects to be funded include - employing consultants to produce a lighting audit action plan for Kendal and Oxenholme.

Secondly, Identify the main contributors to light pollution around here, and Identify priority actions to stop the effects of stray light on the night sky.

Just down the road the neighbouring Yorkshire Dales National Park is on its way to becoming the fourth national park in England to become a Dark Sky Reserve, after Northumberland, Exmoor and The South Downs. Areas of Cumbria still have some way to go. Recently Dr Christopher Kyba, from the German Research Centre for Geosciences said that nights that never get darker than twilight are affecting nocturnal animals, while in humans, the trend has been linked to sleep disorders and disease. Where as Dr Brian May the Queen Guitarist tweeted saying “Light pollution is a very big problem that makes it very difficult to do astronomy from much of this country.

You can learn more about light pollution on https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/