Battle looms over calls for May Day switch

Yorkshire report record turnouts. On Easter Monday, 20,000 people visited Harewood House in Leeds, while the number of people visiting the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield doubled in April compared with last year, and the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster has recorded its busiest ever April.

Mr Verity said: “The bumper April visitor statistics show that bank holidays provide Yorkshire’s tourism businesses with seasonal surges in visitor numbers. The figures convince me that we should be seriously considering adding a new bank holiday in the autumn to prolong the holiday season and bridge the gap between the schools going back and Christmas holidays.”

However, garden centres and DIY stores rely upon shoppers flocking to stores on May Day.

B&Q chairman Euan Sutherland said: “The sentiment amongst the people we polled is clear, hands off our May Day holiday. This is a national holiday so the public has a right to decide whether it should or shouldn’t be moved and the majority want to keep the May bank holiday where it is.”

Tourism operators are also split. The Jorvik Centre said a change would not make a “significant difference” to visitor numbers, but Ryedale Folk Museum said there were arguments for each option.

The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions is yet to decide, while the Yorkshire Wildlife Park urged Ministers to stick with May Day because St George’s Day is too close to Easter and the weather could be poor in October. The National Trust also says it is “unlikely to want to change the current May Day bank holiday” because of similar concerns.

Ministers have also admitted that proposals to move the clocks forward an extra hour throughout the year to extend the evenings have effectively been killed off.

Comment: Page 14.