Jersey to vote on scrapping GMT

Wednesday's vote will give residents the chance to decide if they want to move the clocks forward one hour and adopt Central European Time (CET) rather than GMT.

Backers of the move claim Jersey has more in common with its neighbour France and the change to CET would reflect that.

Senator Jimmy Perchard believes the time has come for change and an extra hour of daylight would also benefit the health of residents, the environment and tourism. He said: "Obesity is a feature of modern society and an extra hour of daylight would allow people to be more active.

"There is also the environmental impact, our footprint would be reduced with less lighting and heating needed in the evenings. A continental lifestyle is desirable, it's something that Jersey could market and promote for tourists."

However business leaders believe the move would damage the economy by taking the island out of step with London.

Geoff Cook, chief executive of Jersey Finance Limited, said 70% of their members were opposed to the idea. He said: "Naturally we would all appreciate the opportunity to enjoy lighter evenings in the summer, but unfortunately the business considerations outweigh the lifestyle benefits as far as the majority of the industry is concerned.

"By far and away the bulk of the finance industry's communication is with the UK and if the one hour change is adopted, two hours of the common working day between the UK and Jersey would be lost. The result of all this would simply be that the island's workforce would be remaining in the office later and working longer hours."

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is calling on the UK to also change its clocks and claims lighter evenings could save 100 lives a year.

RoSPA chief executive Tom Mullarkey said that during an experiment with CET in the UK between 1968 and 1971, there was a fall in the number of people killed in road accidents. He said: "I think the people of Jersey are in a tremendous position to show leadership here. If they make a positive decision in favour of daylight saving it'll force the UK into a position where it'll have to consider making this decision itself."