England could really use an extra hour of daylight. This is the considered opinion of 10:10’s Lighter Later campaign, which is gaining a lot of momentum throughout the country. It has been endorsed by most of the British sporting world including the Football Association, the Cricket Board and the Lawn Tennis Association. Now GEM Motoring Assist is also announcing its endorsement of the proposal to set all the clocks in the U.K. forward by an hour year round.
The end of DST comes on October 31st and the agenda calls for clocks to be set back an hour, cutting the evening daylight hours. Lighter Later contends that leaving them set ahead will benefit the entire population in numerous ways. Prime Minister David Cameron has stated that the government will “look into” the proposal, and he further stated that all citizens need to speak up and let their wishes be known.
10:10 is an organization devoted to the reduction of carbon emissions in the U.K., and the agencies coming forward to back the initiative for later daylight hours support the theory that more hours of sunlight will not only reduce streetlight time, but also aid in promoting better health and safety for everyone, and for children and the elderly in particular.
GEM says that the change would mean less traffic accidents and fatalities, especially for pedestrians. Public health officials say that longer daylight hours will mean more outdoor activity during hours otherwise likely to be spent in front of the tube. Lighter Later is proposing a three-year trial period to see if the benefits will be as great as numerous studies seem to indicate they will.
