NEW outdoor lighting will be installed at a doctor’s surgery after neighbours complained existing lights were “intrusive”.

Councillors have given permission for replacement lighting of car park, driveway and building access lights at the Old Station Surgery in Brecon Road, Abergavenny and a condition will require they are switched off between 9pm and 7am.

Planning officer Phil Thomas told members of Monmouthshire County Council’s planning committee: “The new lights proposed will be LED and a much lower lux and positioned not to spread light to surrounding areas.”

The lights will be positioned on top of the existing seven lighting poles across the car park including four behind the surgery building and three on the access road.

Bats are present in the area and Mr Thomas said it’s hoped the lower illumination will create dark corridors and he said there is no objection from the council’s ecologist.

Cantref Labour councillor Sara Burch said while the surgery is in a neighbouring ward, residents in Pen y Pound are impacted and told the committee: “The lights shine very brightly in their home.

“I feel it will be a great improvement and very much more what should, perhaps, have been provided in the first place.”

Planning officers said the condition of switching the lights off at night would apply seven days a week, and it would be for the surgery to decide if it wanted to use the lights, during permitted hours, at weekends.

Mr Thomas cautioned against being “over restrictive” by specifying the lights couldn’t be used at weekends and said: “What happens if they need to open at weekends? Heaven forbid we should have another pandemic or there is a training day.”

Usk independent Meirion Howells asked if the lights would be switched off automatically to avoid the potential for “human error”.

But Mr Thomas said that was a management issue for the surgery.