HOGMANAY 1999 is to be a Bank Holiday to let people to see in the millennium with a four-day break, Culture Secretary Chris Smith announced yesterday.
Thousands of workers in Scotland could have at least a five-day break with January 1, 2000, falling on a Saturday and January 3 and 4 also being Bank Holidays north of the Border.
Confirmation of the extra day off follows a consultation exercise which Mr Smith said had shown ''overwhelming support''.
He said: ''I know that a large number of people will welcome this opportunity to prepare for the festivities on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day 2000.''
With Christmas Day and Boxing Day also falling at a weekend and Bank Holidays also declared in Scotland for December 27 and 28, it means there will be only two working days north of the Border between December 25 and January 4 - on December 29 and 30.
The one-off Bank Holiday will not replace any of the other eight public days off which form part of the calendar - but will still leave Britain trailing behind France, which has 14 public holidays and Germany, with 17.
Arrangements for public holidays are laid down in the Banking and Financial Dealings Act, 1971, but can be changed by Royal Proclamation.
The last time the Queen declared an extra day off was in 1986 to mark the marriage of the Duke and Duchess of York.
The Government said 85% of organisations consulted backed the plan. They included churches, emergency services, financial, business, and transport sectors, and local government.
Initially there had been opposition from the Confederation of British Industry and from Mr Don Cruickshank, the man co-ordinating the drive against the millennium bug which threatens to disrupt computer operations at the turn of the century. However, both later supported the scheme.
The Government said it wanted to give people more time to make arrangements for millennium celebrations, especially those who needed to travel to families and friends. It also pointed out that Bank Holidays were not prescriptive and any right to time off or extra pay for working on them depended on employment contracts.
Meanwhile, a plan to make the millennium celebrations go with a real bang by staging the ''mother of all firework displays'' was unveiled yesterday.
Mr Dave Caulkins, an American computer network manager, wants to use Cold War missiles for his year 2000 display.
He says he has devised a serious scheme to turn obsolete inter-continental ballistic missiles into the most spectacular fireworks the world has seen.
Instead of carrying nuclear warheads, the ICBMs would be used to launch multi-coloured artificial shooting stars, creating stunning pyrotechnic displays up to 20km across.
The plan to provide a spectacular swansong for missiles such as the US Minuteman and Soviet SS-18 was outlined by Mr Caulkins in the Journal of Pyrotechnics.
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