The Church of England's idea of distributing candles to thousands of households throughout the diocese, to be lit to commemorate the Millennium, is an appealing one. That changeover to the year 2000 will be a very special moment for a great many people. Some will be celebrating it in style with large groups of other people. Many others, though, will be marking the moment in their own homes, either with family and close friends or in some cases alone.

If they all light a candle at an appointed time, wherever they happen to be, it will be a symbolic gesture of solidarity on the threshold of a new age. That, at least, in the upbeat way of looking at the idea. It is a shame, then, that Bradford community safety officer Jack Womersley has felt it necessary to pour cold water on it by expressing concerns that it could lead to a wave of unnecessary house fires.

Mr Womersley is not being a killjoy without good reason. Although candles are widely used in many households to create atmosphere, people are not as used to them as they were in generations gone by. The precautions needed to deal with an open flame are perhaps not as well understood nowadays as they should be. The last thing the emergency services need in the early hours of January 1 is a spate of household blazes.

However, if people take care and behave sensibly, the church scheme is an imaginative one which should be widely appreciated. There is still time between now and the year-end for the safety message to be hammered home.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.