A new campaign has been launched to try and persuade the government to change Britain’s clocks to encourage more use of daylight.

Previous research into moving clocks forward during the winter months has been carried out before with claims that road accidents could be reduced significantly saving up to 200 fatalities.

The Light Later campaign, which was launched with a parliamentary conference on the longest day (June 21), wants the government to trial the idea of having the clocks set to GMT + 1 hour in winter and +2 hours in summer. It claims that the idea would allow an extra hour of daylight to be enjoyed and would bring about environmental and quality of life benefits to the country.

The idea has also been backed by the group Road Safety GB who believe that winter driving accidents would be reduced if this happened.

Christine Fitzgerald of Road Safety GB said: “Road safety campaigners have lobbied for the change for many years and the benefits in terms of reducing the number of KSI’s were outlined. However it was felt that the research from Cambridge University on the CO2 savings and the impact on the environment was a really good way to get the message listened too.”

http://www.roadsafetygb.org.uk/news/1056.html