Sunday’s one-hour lie-in comes at a heavy price. It’s estimated there would be 100 fewer deaths and a reduction of 200 serious injuries on the roads each year if we stopped putting the clocks back in winter.
The UK has already tried year-round BST – once during the war to maximise daylight working hours and again between 1968 and 1971. The most recent trial saw a marked reduction in road traffic deaths and injuries thanks to the lighter evenings, but was ended following pressure from the farming lobby and its objections to darker mornings in the north.
There are some who argue for adding a further hour in summer, bringing us into line with Spain, which sits on the same line of longitude. According to analysis carried out in 2010 having GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer would give Birmingham an extra 301 hours of post-work evening sunlight each year. Glasgow and Edinburgh would enjoy 175 additional hours. Critically, such a change would reduce the UK’s carbon footprint by approximately 2.2 per cent as people would need to use less electricity for lighting.
Moving clocks forward can’t guarantee sunshine, but it encourages healthy outdoor activity
It’s unclear if and when the habit of changing the clocks here in the UK will change. In March 2019, the European parliament voted to do away with the tradition of changing the clocks twice each year. They decided that all European countries would decide to remain permanently on winter time or summer time – although this has yet to be implemented.
Following Brexit, the UK will not be required to make any change although it’s hard to imagine us as the only country in western Europe clinging on to what is increasingly considered an anachronistic practice.
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John Fletcher
PLEASE let’s just stay on what we now call “British Summer Time”. I’ve just had my confused elderly neighbour round trying to work out what he’s supposed to do with his clocks, and I HATE the darker evenings we will face for the next 5 months. What a waste of lives, energy, daylight and sanity. (And in anticipation of the usual howls of protest this idea usually generates from north of the border, I say let the Scots do whatever they want with their own clocks.)
John Ellis
John Fletcher says: “…I say let the Scots do whatever they want with their own clocks…”
So best to give them independence no? Seriously, the divisions around are bad enough without having different time zones. In any event, you cannot usefully benefit from having a lighter evening longer, but at least in the morning people like farmers can benefit from lighter mornings. It kicks both ways, and as a smallholder I vote for the current system.
PeteG
Yes let’s stay on summertime. I experienced this 1968-71, and can say it worked well. To keep that time through winter and then go +1hour in summertime would be even better. It may not suit a small minority… but will certainly improve everyone else’s lives.
Celia Smith
Yes we should stay on summer time hours, with now the cost of energy has gone up it is logical that staying on summertime would save us a lot of money, and it would be safer for people when finishing work to walk home when it is still quite light. Thanks again 👍
Penny Price
Although I hate dark evenings, I find dark mornings far worse, a real barrier to getting going, so I relish the light at 7 o’clock. Its not just the Scots that would suffer if we stuck at BST, those of us in the north suffer too, I live in Yorkshire and we have noticeably shorter winter days than the south. Its one of the few areas the north still has its own way.
While I appreciate road safety the statistics, if we are really serious getting children walking to school more and keeping the school car run to the school walk, we must change the clocks in Autumn and revert to Greenwich meantime. If we did keep BST, all children would start school in the dark in winter, while even in midwinter with the present arrangement children have daylight at both ends of the day. Making it dark in the mornings will only reinforce parent’s instinct to drive children to school, and those that can’t drive will have a much more unpleasant trip to school, which must be more dangerous, Teaching children that walking is good, is fundamental, lets not stop that happening.
I appreciate we have statistics that show there could be reduction in road deaths, but how are these caused? What other measures should we be putting in place to make roads safer in the early evening? More public transport, better pavements well lit public spaces, wearing clothes that are more visible. This is a complex issue but I am delighted we are not proposing to alter it at the present.