Look, I promise you, I’ve been meaning to write this for some time. So, despite all appearances, I am not just jumping on the bandwagon.

You see, the thing is, I have been upset about the whole system of lighting our capital city for some time now.

It all stems from the time that Paul Borg Olivier was mayor. He was, incidentally, the same mayor who was booed out of town when he first suggested clearing the mess that was outside the Auberge de Castille. For some reason, there was a lot less booing this time around.

It was the year 2001 or 2002 and the Valletta Local Council employed a light designer to rethink the lighting of Republic Street. They brought in a French man.

Now let it be known that the French have some of the finest light designers for urban landscapes. But their eyes are used to the softer, gentler, often overcast, Northern lights.

So he went about designing a similar softer, gentler lightscape.

When the new system was switched on, the streets were not lit directly by the street lights. Rather they lived in the soft penumbra of the floodlights bouncing off the surrounding buildings. Suddenly the architecture of old Valletta glowed, and the roads and pedestrians basked in their splendour.

I am not surprised to see that someone has decided to deck out the Auberge de Castille with a permanent installation of Christmas LED lights

Especially chosen, colour graded lighting focused on particular aspects of the streets architecture: the belfry of St Francis, the entrance to the Archaeology Museum, the Law Courts and the monument to Faith, Hope and Charity, all where suffused in the light’s warm embrace.

Unfortunately the whole effect was too subtle for Maltese eyes, used, as we are, to the glare of the Mediterranean sun and, let’s face it, our penchant for anything bigger and brighter.

Before you knew it, the scheme was abandoned, or rather ’adapted’. Lights were directed towards the road, light bulbs were changed, with total disregard to colour temperature or the angle of the beam. The end result is that Valletta’s rich architectural history is once more in the dark. But hey, we have bright roads.

Valletta is littered with similar examples of lighting horror stories. Just look at the bright orange LED lights that emanate from the carbuncle of a lift tower leading to the Upper Barrakka. Or rather do not look at them, they’re quite blinding.

Or check out the bus terminus where once again bounced lighting has been replaced by flood lighting straight in commuters’ eyes. And where also, ironically, the recently restored bastion walls are cloaked in darkness. The only great decision in that area, is that some genius decided to illuminate the dismal ‘monument to the City Gate’ that occupies the space at the end of the terminus with an even more dismal green light that seems perpexingly enough to cast more shadow than light

So I am not surprised to see that someone has decided to deck out the Auberge de Castille with a permanent installation of Christmas LED lights, soon to also be seen on the front of St James Cavalier strung out like a set of pearls round an old aunt’s neck.

The jokes and memes that have been doing the rounds were more than justified. Not that I do not have some sympathy for the contractors involved. All lighting needs some tweaking and adjusting. But lighting up at full blast early on evening as people are going back home to test the system and before you’ve made your adjustments is never a good idea.

But if truth be told, whoever designed this system should have really taken a course in architectural design first. Here’s a hint: architectural lighting should be aimed at the building and should not be visible to the viewers’ eyes.

I suspect that this light system is going to need more than a little tweaking. My fear is that with CHOGM coming up we will go for quick solutions and once again we will get a botched job.

Let’s hope that the government does the right thing and simply changes the up-lighting system currently in place. It could a few discrete lights from roofs of the nearby Post Office and Stock Exchange. And that would more than suffice for the job in hand.

Oh, and while we’re at it can we restore the lighting of Republic Street, please.