Planning For Floodlight Installation

Your choice in floodlights depends on a number of different factors, including:

Location – Is your floodlit area in an urban or rural location? Is it residential or commercial? Is it indoors or outdoors?
When your floodlights will be used – do you intend to bring more light to an area in day time, or add light to an area at night time?
What you are trying to add light to – a game of tennis, football, or hockey?

Finding the correct balance will ensure that you have the correct floodlights to suit the specific needs of your school, gymnasium or sports hall.

Planning Consent

The company you choose to take care of your floodlighting should have experience in the design, installation and maintenance of floodlighting. Be sure to conduct thorough research before hiring any contractor and, if possible, look at some of their previous work. The team at Charles Lawrence have years of experience and can take control of every aspect of your floodlight installation, including the overall planning, consent and preparation for your tennis courts or multi-use games area. If you choose us for the construction of your project, we’ll submit all the necessary plans and application, and see the entire process through the determination, construction and completion.

Floodlighting Considerations – Outdoors

Floodlighting is essential for outdoor facilities as it extends the availability of the court to the customer year round and returns maximum revenue for the provider. If your pitch, field or court is in an urban area, points to consider include the safety of transport users, impact on the visual character of the landscape in which you intend to install floodlights and the impact on nearby historical sites, places of interest and wildlife. In many cases, you will require permission from your local Borough Council. Some may simply impose restrictions on you, to maintain the integrity and visual beauty of an area. Rural areas are subject to far stricter guidelines and planning for floodlighting. You must consider the possibility of sky glow (an over-abundance of light which impairs the natural beauty of the night time sky) and the effect of large pieces of lighting equipment which can change the atmosphere of the area and decrease its natural brilliance. The Department of the Environment and the Countryside Commission produced a good practice guide in 1997 called Lighting The Countryside. This document is an excellent guide in whether or not what you might have planned will be permissible in a rural area. Several of the points made within this guide can also be turned towards the floodlighting of urban and suburban areas and so it forms a good starting point.

Floodlighting Considerations – Specific Sports

The games played on your pitch, field or court will also have an impact on the type of floodlighting you choose. Different sports have different requirements for light and each of these will need to be catered for. If more than one sport utilises your floodlights, i.e. a multi use games area, you must ensure that you have adequately prepared for each type of sport. The Guidance Notes produced by the Sports Council offers a comprehensive outline of the different levels of light required for different sports and can help you in deciding what type of floodlighting your facility would make the best use of. If you having any further questions surrounding floodlighting, or would like to hear about the services on offer from Charles Lawrence Tennis Courts, get in touch today. Our friendly team of experts are happy to help.