A LONG-running plea for lighter evenings has been rejected by the Government.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) had urged the House of Lords to support a three-year time trial that would see clocks in England stay one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the winter and two hours ahead in the summer.

The Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill was intended to combat a rise in road deaths when the evenings close in for the winter.

RoSPA believed it could have cut fatalities by 450 a year. The proposal would have resulted in darker mornings but Kevin Clinton, RoSPA head of road safety, said: ‘Vulnerable road users such as children and the elderly are more at risk during dark evenings than in the morning.’