The UK Government has dropped plans to move UK clocks forward an extra hour. The proposal was widely reported last week as likely to be included in plans presented today (4 March) alongside a consultation about scrapping May Day in England and Wales and replacing it with a bank holiday in the early spring or autumn. Although tourism chiefs were largely in favour of moving the clocks it would have resulted in darker mornings for much of Scotland and there were fears that this would increase the road accident rate.
However the plan would have brought UK clocks in line with most of Europe, making the evenings lighter for longer and potentially boosting tourism. Tourism experts say the number of overseas visitors would increase if summer evenings were lighter with an estimated boost to the tourism economy, including Scotland, of millions of pounds.