No legal impediment to the beams (From Daily Echo)

No legal impediment to the beams

9:00am Thursday 4th January 2007 in

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ANY PROTESTERS who might want to mount a legal challenge against plans for lasers from the top of Southampton's Clock Tower would be unlikely to succeed, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Environmental laws mean that the lights must have a proven negative effect on health if people against the proposals want to call a halt to the plans.

However, under the terms of the Environmental Protections Act - mere "irritation" against the plans would not constitute a valid ground for complaint.

The legal issues surrounding Southampton's plans to fire giant green lasers from the top of the city's Grade II listed clock tower are revealed in a Cabinet report into the project which is due to be discussed by ruling Liberal Democrat Cabinet members on Monday.

Bosses at the Civil Aviation Authority have also confirmed that plans by Southampton City Council to fire giant lasers across Hampshire will not fall foul of the law.

The body - responsible for regulating aircraft safety - said the proposals would not interfere with aircraft landing or taking off from Southampton airport.

The beams will be seen from all points of the compass for a distance of up to 15 miles away.

The plans have sparked complaints by residents in the New Forest in the west and villages on the outskirts of Portsmouth in the opposite direction.

There were also concerns that the plans could cause a nuisance. Council bosses say the lasers are not classed as a development and that the siting of them is not illegal in the Grade II listed tower.