Victoria's Green Matters 20th Oct 2011

Deal With IT's Secretary Victoria Nicholls writes a regular column in the East Kent Mercury:

Days are growing shorter and, although we have been having some wonderful sunshine to soften the onset of autumn and winter, night-time seems to arrive far too early. To make this situation worse, we will be putting our clocks back by one hour at the end of October. The dubious benefit of this is to give lighter mornings for a few short weeks.

Before clocks were invented, daylight was the only thing that measured time; people worked when it was light and rested when it was dark.

It has been proved that leaving the clocks alone at the end of October would not only make it more pleasant to have longer days but it would also make it safer for those travelling home from school and work in the evening. Our campaign last year culminated in a vote in Parliament that was defeated once again by the Scots. The Scots are keen on devolution; why don’t they change their clocks and leave us to opt for lighter evenings?

There are many benefits. The road safety ones are obvious but there is also less energy used to light the home when evenings are lighter and outdoor leisure activities are possible, leading to greater health and wellbeing. Aligning ourselves with Continental Europe makes economic sense while tourism, which is one of our main money earners, could take advantage of the daylight hours when visiting our country.