Wintry feel about summer
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THE PROBLEMS caused to transport firms by the change to the differing "official" summer times between Britain and Europe were raised in the Commons last week when members approved a scheme to harmonise the change from next year.
The constant change of schedules involved transport operations in continual rescheduling and freight companies in considerable complexity, said lain Mills (Tory, Meriden).
The change, he said, would make life easier for those many transport undertakings that had the job of getting our exports to overseas territories on time.
Michael Brown (Tory, Brigg and Scunthorpe) claimed that the only reason why the change was being made was in response to a directive from the EEC.
But Roger Moate (Tory, Faversham) did not believe that the change was being made for the convenience of road haulage organisations. He pointed out that although there was to be harmonisation at the beginning of the year, we would maintain British summer time for one month longer than the rest of Europe.
Minister of State at the Home Office Timothy Raison said that the differences in starting and finishing time had caused real complications for transport undertakings.