Don't Forget To Put Your Clocks Back On Sunday

The clocks are going back on Sunday, 30 October, at 2am which means we will all get an extra hour in bed.

This marks the end of the British Summer Time(BST) and the UK will be back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

It will be lighter in the mornings and the evenings will be darker.

However, as the daylight savings system reaches 100 years old this year, family safety charity RoSPA is calling for a time-shift fit for the 21st century.

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA's Head of Road Safety, said: "Child pedestrians are particularly vulnerable during the afternoon school run, when they digress on their way home and so are exposed to traffic risk for longer than their morning trip to school. During that period motorists are also tired after the day's work, concentration levels are low, and journey times are increased due to shopping and social trips.

"For these reasons, increased evening daylight would produce significant results in preventing accidents to children and other road users."

RoSPA Chief Executive Tom Mullarkey added: "Not only would we save a significant number of lives through a change to Single/Double Summer Time (SDST), but we would also boost the tourism industry, increase recreational time for children through sports and other activity, allow older people to reduce the winter evening curfew, lower opportunistic crime, and decrease CO2 production and fuel costs, all in one fell swoop. It is the only way we can make so many material improvements to our country, at a stroke, at no cost.

"Unfortunately there are those who are determined to cling onto a practice which was innovative and forward-looking in 1916 but which has not been updated to its full potential a hundred years later. In these conditions of economic uncertainty and austerity, this simple measure would raise everyone's morale and set us up to deal with whatever troubles may lie ahead. We need our politicians to show the leadership and foresight of their wartime forbears, in our darkest hour."

(CD)