No flash needed when the lights are this bright.

Tonight I was shocked to look out of my bedroom window and see the street glowing as if it were daylight. New LED lights have been installed in my road and now the night has gone. I feel robbed of something I can't quite articulate. Something I feel is intrinsically important for me as a species, to feel the light dim and night arrive.

I know some will feel safer walking down a brightly lit street but numerous reports show that bright white lighting on urban streets does not reduce crime. It does however reduce insect numbers. Medway Council claim the LED lights are environmentally friendly as they use less energy and create less light pollution but studies have shown they also reduce insect numbers in rural country lanes. Bright white LED lighting are also thought to effect human health, disturbing sleep patterns, causing headaches and eyestrain.

My feeling of connection to the darkness, seasons drawing in, the turning of the earth has been lost beneath this palid glow. I want my night back. More and more I feel our town centres are removing us from nature. All the little scrubby places where blackbirds sang have been ripped up for urban sprawl, the roads which petered out into grassy verges have been taken over by hard surfaces, hedges and front lawns have been tarmaced over. night has vanished.

Frankly, I hate it. I want nature, even in the middle of a town, I want grass and hedges and scrub and wild flowers and brambles with blackberries hanging out over the road and hops working their way up the lamp posts. I want back the darkness I once had when I first lived here, a darkness in which nightingales sang.

The destruction of my town's connection with the countryside and nature makes me very sad. It makes me want to move.

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