I LIKE to illuminate you each week with this column if I can.

This week the metaphor takes on a literal sense because I'm discussing street lighting.

One of my colleagues was telling me the new-style street lamps in town, which are designed to save energy, provide good illumination directly under the lamp but are poorer at lighting a wider area than their predecessors (the less eco-friendly ones).

She is concerned that people's safety might be compromised as a result.

Have you noticed a similar problem? I will be paying more attention next time I'm out.

I don't know what the council has to say on the matter, perhaps they will let us know after this column.

But I took a look at what they had to say about the work to replace the town's street lamps.

According to the council's website, the town has 27,000 ageing lighting columns and the authority is looking to replace around 18,000 of them over the next three years at a cost of £25 million. The work is being done to try to cut the town's energy consumption and to reduce its – here comes a much abused buzz term – carbon footprint.

It got me thinking about the history of the street lamp and the now pretty much defunct role of the lamplighter. I knew little bits from history lessons at school. So I did a bit of reading.

The original lamplighters were employed in the days – obviously – before electricity. They worked for their local town authority and it was their job to walk the streets with a wick on a long pole.

The earliest street lights were candles and oil. The lamplighters would return at dawn to extinguish the flames using a small hook on the same pole.

They would carry small ladders with them for the purpose of replacing candles and oil. In time, the role evolved into something akin to a town watchman.

The role changed after the advent of gas lamps. It's easy to see why gas lamps were replaced. They require much more maintenance than their electric counterparts. Their mechanisms need winding and polishing.

Yet there is something romantic about gaslight. As a child I loved the little hiss followed by the gentle pop as a struck match ignited the lamps in our ancient family static caravan. The effect the golden-glowing lights created was lovely.

I was surprised to learn that there are still 1,500 working gas lamps in London and five lamplighters (employed by British Gas) whose job it is to light, service and maintain these remaining lamps.

It's hard to argue against energy-saving progress, but there's a teeny weeny part of me that would love to see gas lamps return.

You didn't hear me say that, OK?