Victory as ministers call for changes to UK time
Baku, February 21 (AZERTAC). The prospect of longer and lighter summer evenings came a step closer yesterday after ministers backed the Daily Express and agreed to look at a shake-up in the way clocks are set.
Whitehall sources confirmed that a permanent change will be proposed by the coalition this week.
The move, to be announced as part of a new “tourism strategy”, would put the country on “double summertime” - two hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, and an hour ahead of British Summer Time.
It is a major victory for the Daily Express “Time For Change” crusade.
Supporters agree the move would boost outdoor evening events such as sports contests and concerts, as well as cutting road accidents and reducing energy costs.
Conservative MP Rebecca Harris, who has championed the change through a private members` bill in the Commons, welcomed the news last night.
She said: “If the Government is seriously looking at this, I will be very pleased.
“The tourism industry estimates that this measure could create 80,000 jobs at a stroke and would be worth about £3.5billion to the economy. It would also be a huge boost to participation in sport.” She said research by the Department for Transport had found that putting the clocks forward could save about 80 lives a year by cutting road accidents on darker evenings.
It is understood the Government will put forward a series of options in a public consultation later this year. Its favoured option is to put the country on Central European Time, in line with most of the Continent.
This would do away with the twice yearly ritual of putting the clocks forward or back. A poll last year found that 58 per cent of people were against the clocks going back one hour every autumn mainly because of the greater risk of accidents among children walking home from school in the dark.
Moving to continental time would mean longer, lighter evenings but darker mornings.
Ministers are prepared for any change to be unpopular in the North, particularly in Scotland, because sun rise would happen much later in the day in winter.
Other proposals aimed at boosting Britain`s tourism industry and cutting bureaucracy will also be announced in the consultation.
Ministers want to switch the date of the May Day bank holiday. The break is based upon Labour Day, which some ministers see as an outdated socialist festival. Instead, they would like a “UK Day” or a “Trafalgar Day” marking Admiral Nelson`s victory over the French and Spanish fleets on October 21, 1805.
Other proposals include scrapping the Visit Britain “star rating” system for hotels.
This would leave the field clear for consumer-led reviews on websites such as TripAdvisor.
The Government also wants to make it easier for visitors to apply for tourist visas, and to upgrade the arrivals areas of Heathrow and other main airports.
And businesses could be given more freedom to advertise attractions on the side of main roads, rather than relying on the current system of “brown signs” marking officially-recognised tourist sites.
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