Is the practice of turning the clocks back facing its final hour?

AS the clocks go back tomorrow morning, Rory Stone will breathe a sigh of relief. For in the past few weeks, his ten-mile drive through winding country roads to take his two children to their local school has been in semi-darkness as the winter mornings draw in. That precious extra hour of morning daylight Mr Stone will win back as Britain moves onto Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), will, he says, mean a safer trip for Rollo, three and Lilla, six.

• George Clink, the official foreman for the Queen at the Palace of Holyrood House, has to change 80 clocks in the royal residence.

But his happiness may be shortlived. A campaign to move the UK on to a double summer time (GMT+2) has been gaining momentum. If implemented, in some parts of Scotland, it would not get light until 10am – well after most people are already settled into their schools or offices.

"It is always early in the morning when there is black ice on the roads around our farm in winter," says Mr Stone, a cheesemaker from Tain in the Highlands. "As soon as it becomes light, something seems to happen and it quickly disappears. If the clocks don't go back, the ice will still be on the roads when we drive the children to school. With the way they have been cutting back on gritting in recent years, that could be pretty dangerous."

He warns that darker mornings could also deter Scottish parents from allowing their children to take themselves to school.

"We live too far away from the school for our children ever to walk, but I see a lot of their classmates at the moment on foot or riding their bikes as we get closer. It doesn't make sense – on one hand the government wants to encourage children to walk, but I can't see many of the parents I know letting them do so if it's still dark."

Under the new proposals, which Prime Minister David Cameron has said he will seriously consider, the country's clocks would be set to GMT+1 in the winter and GMT+2 in the summer, providing lighter nights and darker mornings. The change would bring the UK in line with France, Germany and other countries that follow Central European Time (CET).

The second reading of the Daylight Saving Bill is due to go through Westminister in early December, which, if approved, would see a comprehensive study into the idea, which would then be considered by ministers. If the benefits of a switch to CET were proven, the UK would then launch a three-year trial into the project.

But while the idea has increasingly been met with approval in England, the sentiment north of the Border – especially among politicians – is quite different. "Tory MPs like David Cameron need to wake up to the impact these proposals would have on people in Scotland," says Angus MacNeil, SNP MP for the Western Isles, adding that an alternative would be to encourage those living in southern England to "get up earlier and enjoy the sunshine". He adds: "Plunging Dundee into darkness to boost tourism in Torquay is simply not acceptable and would make a mockery of Mr Cameron's Respect Agenda."

The change could be achieved by not turning the clocks back in the autumn, after which the usual cycle of putting the clocks forward an hour in spring and back an hour in autumn would resume.

But critics of the idea – including the Scottish Government, which claims it has received assurances from Westminster that a change would never go ahead – believe an hour's extra darkness in the morning could put Scotland's children at risk as they trudge to school in the dark, while individuals working within normal office hours fear they would never see daylight during the dreary winter months.

"The impact would be felt by rural communities and outdoor workers and businesses, while reduced daylight between 8am and 9am in Scotland could potentially increase the danger for children travelling to school in the dark," says a Scottish Government spokesman.

One alternative to Scotland adopting the double summertime proposal would be for the status quo to be retained north of the Border – splitting Scotland and the rest of the UK into two separate time zones.

Although not a devolved issue, the idea has been half-heartedly touted by some – predominantly English Tory MPs, tired of the idea of a change being blocked by Scottish politicians.

But Scottish politicians and business leaders have warned that such a decision could have serious consequences. One of the main arguments for making the change is that it would boost business and trade links for Britain to be in the same timezone as the rest of Europe. If Scotland was to isolate itself, it would be the only European country, except Ireland, operating on GMT.

CBI Scotland director Iain McMillan describes the idea as "preposterous". "CBI Scotland has considered this very carefully and concluded that whatever happens to the time zones, whether we move to European time or stay put, we would be very much against Scotland being on a different time to the rest of the UK," he says. "The problems in doing that would be exactly the same as the things that people say already exist between the UK and countries on Central European Time.

"They say doing business with Europe is inconvenient, but it would create the same split between England and Scotland. The whole thing is preposterous."

"No change should happen unless all parts of the UK benefit," adds Ann McKechin, Labour MP for Glasgow North. "This plan would cause severe problems in the North of Scotland, but also in the Central Belt where there is significantly less sunlight per year than even places like Durham or Newcastle."

However, while the jury is still out over whether a time zone change will ever actually be implemented – the Prime Minister, whose government has the final say, time being a non-devolved issue, has been clear on his views that if a review takes place, Scotland should be included in any decision. "We are a United Kingdom. I want us to have a united time zone," Mr Cameron was reported as saying earlier this year.

Scottish tourism organisations, and farmers' unions, which have previously been sceptical about the idea, have cautiously welcomed a debate following the publication of the first independent report examining the impacts of the clock change with a specific focus on Scotland.

The report, published this week by the Policy Studies Institute at the University of Westminster, insists that a change would actually benefit Scots, saving lives on the road in the evenings and giving people – particularly the elderly and children – more opportunities to go out at night.

A late 1960s experiment into double summertime – which was also brought in during the Second World War to save on fuel consumption – sparked anger from Scots, who pointed to statistics which showed that there were an increased number of accidents on Scotland's roads in the period compared to the previous year But there were also far fewer deaths in the newly lighter evenings.

UK-wide road accident organisation Rospa has issued previous warnings that the "entrenched prejudice and lack of political will" which blocked the change had actually caused more unnecessary deaths on Scotland's roads.

"The case against making the clock change in Scotland was never very strong and has weakened over time as a consequence of social and economic change and our better understanding of the benefits of daylight," says PSI director, Malcolm Rigg.

Dr Mayer Hillman, author of the report, claimed that the change would enable Scots to make better use of the sunshine hours available. "Advancing the clocks by an hour, in real terms, would bring a further 50 hours of 'available' sunshine for children and 75 hours for adults in Scotland each year," he adds.Daniel Vockins, campaign manager for Lighter Later, the group behind the push for a change south of the Border, insists lighter evenings would be beneficial for Scotland. "The move would save 20 lives on Scottish roads each year, create 7,000 jobs in tourism, tackle obesity and boost sport," he insists, citing the new report's findings.

In the very far north of Scotland, where a European time zone could leave residents without daylight until 10am, communities are not too upset by the proposals.

"In Shetland, we're used to extremes," says Keith Turner, a teacher who lives in Lerwick, Shetland, with his partner Janet and their two sons. "In June, it hardly ever gets dark, in winter, it hardly ever gets light. While it is nice when it gets light an hour earlier or so, because we might enjoy part of our journey to work in semi daylight, it isn't going to make a huge difference." He adds: "I think it's those people living down in central Scotland who'd be sensitive to the change – we can cope with anything up here."