The Police and Crime Commissioner for Dyfed-Powys, Dafydd Llywelyn, is spearheading a call for Wales to have a public holiday on St David’s Day.

Mr Llywelyn and his North Wales counterpart Arfon Jones say it’s only right that the people of Wales are urging the UK Government to give the Welsh Assembly the power to introduce this holiday.

That would enable them to follow the precedent set in Scotland in 2006 when the Scottish Parliament designated November 30, St Andrew’s Day, as a national holiday.

In Scotland banks are not required to close on November 30 and employers are not required by law to give workers a paid day’s holiday although many do.

Mr Llywelyn and Mr Jones have said they are planning to raise the matter at the next meeting of the four Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales and the four chief constables. However they did not mention if they would be asking for the police forces to unilaterally give their staff a paid day’s holiday on March 1.

Mr Llywelyn said: “The four Commissioners and the four chief constables, as employers of tens of thousands of people in Wales, should lobby the Assembly for this change to be introduced.

“Arfon and I believe there is a great deal of support for the idea of creating a new official holiday to celebrate our patron saint’s day.

“It is not a great legislative issue and there is no real barrier to creating a new holiday in Wales.

“It would be a flagship day for our national pride and a mark of our maturity as a nation.”

Mr Jones said: “St David’s Day is our national day and I believe that we should introduce it as a holiday to celebrate our status as a nation.

“It is something I feel very strongly about - we have had a meeting about how we can emphasise the distinctive Welsh identity of our police forces and this is a step we can take.

“Celebrating St David’s Day with a public holiday would celebrate the fact that we are Welsh and that Wales is a country in its own right with its own distinctive identity and customs.

“Many countries have national holidays – in the USA it is Independence Day and in France they have Bastille Day and Victory in Europe Day while in Spain Catalans celebrate their own national day on September 11.

“Just as in Scotland it would be at the discretion of employers but it would at the very least be a recognition and a celebration of our own national identity.”