Summertime

Just got back from Lanzarote (more later!), so it is perhaps apt to discuss sunshine...

With the UK entering its first week of British Summer Time, it has been suggested that moving the clocks forward by another hour to provide extra sunlight in the evening could bring in more than £10 million of additional tourism income to North Wales every year.

This is not a new concept. The modern idea of summer time goes back to 1784, when the great American politician Benjamin Franklin was living in Paris. In a letter to a French journal, he argued that thousands of francs a year could be saved if people woke up earlier during the summer because they would buy fewer candles to light during the evening.

Over two hundred and twenty years later, the main arguments put forward by supporters of extending summer time is to make better use of daylight.

For the tourism industry, it increases the time available for outdoor activities, and can thus benefit a range of attractions. In particular, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of pounds of additional income will be generated in specific sectors such as the golf industry.

It could also establish a café culture across Wales, with increased income to the restaurant and pub trade as more people are attracted to late evening meals al fresco, weather permitting of course. Retailers will also benefit as shoppers have more daylight hours to wander around stores, although this will depend on many small shops changing their hours of work to accommodate this.

Supporters also argue that there are also potential savings to be made in terms of energy usage, especially in terms of reducing fluorescent lighting across the towns and cities of the UK.

Indeed, the main aim of introducing summer time during the First and Second World wars was to conserve energy, although there are those who also claim that energy usage can increase as a result of any changes, especially with increased use of air conditioners in developed economies across the world.

Economic issues are seemingly not the only positives from additional daylight hours. For example, research from the Policy Studies Institute has suggested that there could be two thousand fewer road casualties every year (including one hundred fewer road deaths) if there was an additional hour of sunlight.

Further studies from the USA have suggested that summer time can reduce crime by up to ten per cent and have a positive influence on the fear of crime. It also gives adults and children more time to pursue healthy leisure activities in the evenings, bringing positive health benefits.

On the other hand, summer time can affect certain sectors such as the agricultural industry, although there are indications that farmers are prepared to adapt to any changes. Concerns have also been raised by the entertainment industry, with indications that there would be less people watching television in the evenings and, consequently, less advertising revenue for broadcasting companies.

For the UK Government, the biggest problem is probably Scotland, as the further North you go, the bigger effect this will have, although given the moves by the Scottish parliament for greater powers, we could end up in a compromise position where Scotland has different time zone to the rest of the UK.

Certainly, there is a strong case to be made for examining the potential extension of summer time by an additional hour. If it supports businesses to make profits, conserves energy, save lives, and gets us outdoors to makes us healthier, then it is difficult to find any arguments against such a move.