Farron supports call to keep it 'Lighter, Later'

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has today called for the government to review the evidence in favour of moving the clocks back to give an extra hour of light in winter evenings.

The UK's clocks are currently set to GMT during the winter and GMT+1, or British Summer Time, in the summer. The campaign to look at the evidence again is growing from trade unions, The Football Association, environmental campaigners like 10:10 and the National Farmers Union in Scotland.

The change would bring some serious benefits to Cumbria. Longer, lighter evenings would make roads safer, cut energy bills and benefit tourism. Recently a report by the Policy Studies Institute argued that children in Scotland would gain up to 200 hours of useful daylight a year if the clocks were moved forward. Tim believes that in northern England there would be similar benefits, especially for school children.

Tim has called on the government to support a private members bill on the issue which will be debated in December, calling for a trial of the time change if a full review of the evidence confirms widespread benefits.

Tim commented: "I think the time is right to look at this again. We need to look at the evidence and make a sensible decision in the interests of safety, the environment and our economy. I can see real merit for Cumbria of an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. I want to try and make sure that this proposal is brought in for the whole of the UK and not in a piecemeal way."