Well I am now in the last month of my term as President of the ILP and it has been a very interesting year. I will look to a final sign off summary but thought it appropriate just to look at some of the work that the ILP are undertaking to help the development and understanding of lighting.
During the year we have seen the Fundamentals of lighting training course well supported and receive excellent feedback and it is viewed as an excellent introduction to lighting for those who are perhaps involved in the fringes of lighting, represent manufacturers of lighting products and for others with an interest but perhaps not looking to undertake detailed design.
We have also looked to provide information to our members in the form of lighting guidance documents and this has included:
· Illuminating the public realm, The importance of public lighting, Guidance for resident’s and stakeholders on local authority public lighting best practice, produce in liaison with Westminster City Council.
· Guidance on current and forth coming legalisation within the lighting sector, this document was first issued a year ago but since then we have moved into stage 2 of the Energy related Products Directive and there are now new requirements for the fluorescent and HID lamps, ballasts and luminaires that we use for all aspects of lighting. Everyone involved in lighting needs to be aware of this document.
As those members in the highway sector are no doubt aware BS5489 Road Lighting is under review and the 2012 standard will be issued later this year. There are significant changes to the application of road lighting and the BSI panel and the ILP have been working together to ensure that the right information is available to all when the Standard is launched.
This includes a review and development of a number of our Technical Reports (soon to be called Professionals Lighting Guides (PLG’s)) which will tie into and be referenced to the new Standard. These include:
· The designation of conflict areas
· The application of lighting profiling (switch off, part night lighting and dimming)
· Understanding Central Management Systems
· Mespoic vision
As I hope you can all appreciate it is important that these documents tie up and cross reference to the Standard and hence they we will be looking to issue them all at the right time.
In addition PLG’s will also be published looking at:
· Undertaking environmental lighting impact assessments
· A framework to aid the development of street lighting maintenance management plans
· Festive lighting and other attachments.
Whilst mentioning TR’s / PLG’s we would be interested to know if you feel if it would be beneficial to have these issued as electronic documents to members and if this would be a benefit to your membership. Please let me know.
