Cameron hears plea from West Oxfordshire residents over light pollution (From The Oxford Times)

Cameron hears plea from West Oxfordshire residents over light pollution

6:00pm Saturday 2nd March 2013 in News

DAVID Cameron has said the Government will look into safeguards for communities who lose controversial planning appeals after complaints about new floodlights for tennis courts in Lyneham.

Wychwood Tennis Club won planning permission to build the four floodlit courts and a pavilion in Lyneham on appeal earlier this year after West Oxfordshire District Council originally rejected the scheme.

Residents, who objected to the plan because they said it would cause light pollution in what are reputedly the second darkest skies in the Cotswolds, wrote to Mr Cameron to argue that overturning the decision of a local council was a “blatant disregard for the local democracy”.

Mr Cameron, the Prime Minister and Witney MP, replied: “The argument would appear to be whether in the spirit of true localism there should be an independent appeal procedure. Applicants refused consent may argue that to have no appeal mechanism is a removal of their democratic rights.

“This is clearly a difficult subject. I shall raise the matter with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Eric Pickles) to investigate if safeguards are possible in cases such as the one you raise.”

But he said, as an MP, he had no powers to intervene in decisions taken.