A RETIRED hotelier is clocking up the benefits by living an hour ahead of UK time.

Jim Casey, 74, of Heversham, was sick of the long, dark evenings and took matters into his own hands by moving all his clocks forward by 60 minutes.

He is refusing to live 'by government time' and says he is reaping the rewards.

While on holiday in Tenerife with his wife, Barbara, Jim realised that when they returned to the Lake District it would be going dark too early for his liking, so he decided to create WARP - Winter Adjustment for Retired People.

"We find it great, it makes the day a bit longer," said Jim. "We are on continental time and we can never be late.

"There are so many benefits to it - if you're on holiday and you go down to breakfast you're always an hour ahead of everyone else so you never queue.

"When we go out to a restaurant here for lunch then there's nobody there so we get served first and get the best seats.

"We miss a lot of the rush hour traffic too and it means when we go shopping there is always somewhere to park."

Aside from having more hours of daylight, Jim made the change because he resented being told how to live his life.

He said: "I don't like being told to do things by government - they robbed us of an hour of daylight without asking us!"

Several of Jim's friends have followed suit and joined WARP, but he is not on a mission to convert everybody.

"I'm not starting a campaign," said Jim, who used to run Windermere's Beaumont Hotel. "When people are working it's very difficult.

"It's for people who are in charge of their own destiny."

Jim and Barbara have decided that they are sticking to their guns and will never switch back to government time.

"I won't put the clocks back," said Jim. "When government time catches up with us we might even move forward again."