Company aiming to see the lights

8:22am Sunday 5th November 2006

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A CONTROVERSIAL engineering firm has applied for permission to install a new lighting system on its site.

FM Conway, based in Rochester Way, Dartford, was the subject of a furious campaign by residents of the Braeburn Park estate in Crayford two years ago, because of its illegal activities.

Its green belt site, which is right on the borough boundary between Dartford and Bexley, has been extensively reorganised after the company was forced to apply for planning permission for activities, such as drainage treatment and aggregate washing, already in operation there.

One complaint voiced by residents' was about light pollution from 19 lights which were 26.5ft high and installed in 2003 without the proper permission.

Dartford Council issued the company with an enforcement notice over the problem.

And although the company appealed, a planning inspector decided the lighting could unacceptably affect 91 acres of open space to be managed by the London Wildlife Trust as part of the Braeburn Park development.

However, he did give the company time to come up with an acceptable lighting scheme.

Bexley Council was asked for its comments on the company's latest plans, to install 17, 20ft-high lighting columns around the internal roads on 1.1 acres of the site.

The company says the new lighting is an attempt to mirror the lights on the Braeburn Park estate both in height and with similar 70w bulbs.

Conway runs a 24-hour operation which includes emergency works vehicles and gulley cleaning and needs to make sure the site is properly lit for vehicles coming in and out of the site.

The application for the new lights will be decided by Dartford Council, which wrote to more than 700 homes about the plans and has so far received 49 objections.

Bexley Council received no objections and at this week's planning control committee meeting, councillors agreed they had no grounds to object.

But Bexley Council has asked Dartford Council to ensure the lights, when installed, match the details of the application in order to protect residents in Braeburn Park.