Duncan Wise, visitor development and marketing manager at Northumberland National Park

The money has come from the newly-launched Clif Bar National Parks Protectors Fund and will be used to raise public awareness about dark-sky conservation, as well as delivering a new dark sky-friendly lighting project in Northumberland International Dark Sky Park – England’s first and Europe’s largest international dark sky park.

Duncan Wise, visitor development and marketing manager at Northumberland National Park, said: “This project will enable us to raise awareness of the issues around poor outdoor lighting and the cause of light pollution, and how it affects nocturnal wildlife and our health.

“It will also help residents and businesses to adopt good practice and replace bad lighting with better, well-designed alternatives, thus ensuring the pristine dark skies of Northumberland International Dark Sky Park are conserved for the wonder of this generation and the next.”

The anti-light pollution project will be delivered in two parts.

Phase one focuses on raising public awareness of the issues around bad outdoor lighting such as unshielded lights and blue-white LEDs on wildlife and our health, as well as it contributing to light pollution, which effectively blocks the view of the stars above.

The second part will focus on adapting or replacing bad lighting with appropriate, fully-shielded lighting.