CAMPAIGNERS are stepping up their call to move Britain's clocks forward to create Double British Summer Time, giving light evenings until 11pm.

Ahead of British Tourism week, which starts on Monday, industry leaders claim the move could be worth £3.5 billion a year to the economy, with 80,000 new jobs created because attractions would be able to stay open later.

Senior Labour ministers are understood to be pressing for the idea to form part of the party's election manifesto. Gordon Brown last month told Western Morning News readers that the plan to adopt European time was under review and could produce "real" economic benefits.

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The PM said the proposal was "worthy of consideration" and he had been "thinking carefully" about the switch. It has been suggested it could net the Westcountry economy alone an extra £100 million a year.

A Daylight Forum Discussion Group will meet at Exeter University later this month to consider the proposals .

Angela Wright, founder of the Westcountry's Crealy Adventure Parks, and one of the leaders of the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions, said: "The extra hour of daylight, particularly during the warm summer evenings, could be of huge benefit to leisure and tourism attractions around the UK.

"We fully support the push towards Double British Summer Time and to provide greater safety to evening activities and enable more outdoor leisure time."

The current proposal is that, rather than putting the clocks back to GMT this October, the country maintains British Summer Time during winter and then pushes the clocks forward another hour next spring to create Double British Summer Time.

This Single/Double Summer Time would effectively mean the UK adopting the same time zone as central European countries such as France, Germany, and Spain.

Ben Bradshaw, the minister responsible for tourism, is a long-standing supporter of the idea. "It is high time we moved on it," he said.

South West MEP Giles Chichester and MP for North Cornwall Dan Rogerson are meeting the campaign group next week to discuss the proposals.

Under the existing arrangements, around 35 per cent of the population is asleep when the sun rises on winter mornings, therefore making no use of the extra daylight. Experts also argue the plan would improve road safety, cut obesity by giving children longer to play in the evenings and reduce crime.

Three years ago a YouGov survey found 54 per cent of the public supported a change in daylight hours. And the National Farmers' Union in the South West has dismissed as an "urban myth" the idea that farmers were against the switch to European time.

Bernard Donoghue, head of government affairs at VisitBritain, told the Western Morning News yesterday: "We have always been for it because of the proven economic benefits that it would bring, in particular to visitor attractions which could really capitalise on the extra hours in terms of domestic spending."

He said devolution needed to be taken into account, notably the impact on Scotland. But senior Government sources suggest Mr Brown is willing to face-down opposition from north of the border, possibly even advocating the introduction of different time zones in England and Scotland.