Appeal Allowed on Rehearing
Page 42
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(IN Monday last the Appeal Tribunal 'L./ adopted the unusual procedure of,
allowing its decision on the appeal of Mr. J. Charman, which was reported in the issue of The Commercial Motor dated December 21, to be contested.
This action was necessitated by the recent ruling of the High Court that a licensing authority could not make a grant outside the terms of the original application, and the question at issue was whether the .Tribunal was competent to give a decision which would have this effect.
The appeal was against the Metropolitan Licensing Authority's action in refusing a B licence and against conditions attached to a B licence.
Mr. Cohen, for the appellant, agreed that he could not ask for facilities in excess of those specified in the 'original application.. He requested,' the .buual to make a decision in those-tarns • and to.. give some indication of -the ruling that it •would have mabe had the High Court case not been brought by the Great Western Railway Co... • In reading the Tribunal's original decision, Mr. Rowand Harker, K.C., the chairman, said that Mr. Charman was a farmer and haulier, of Forest Green, who carried, agricultural pro duce, cattle, horses, bricks, undertook work for Surrey County Council, and sometimes conveyed sand,
He had previously used horses, but, in January-, 1934, purchased a Bedford
lorry, and, in May of the same year, bought an additional vehicle—a Ford— in order to meet the demand for the transport of cattle to market. The Metropolitan Authority granted a licence for the Ford vehicle and limited transport to radii of 20, 10 and 5 miles from Dorking, according to the class of goods.
The appellant sought the extension of his radius of action, the alteration of the starting point from Dorking to Forest Green, to carry certain other goods and to uie both vehicles. In• his original application Mr. Charman sought to operate from Fotest Green.
At the hearing of -the appeal it was submitted that the appellant had agreed to the conditions, and reference. was made to the case of the Ewhurst Haulage Co., in which a similar state of affairs prevailed ; the' latter appeal was refused.
The Tribunal was of the opinion that, in the Ewhurst case, there was to question . of the appellant being confused as to the conditions which the Authority proposed to impose, but, in the case under review, there may have been some confusion in the appellant's mind. The appeal. was allowed, the Tribunal considering that the variation of the originating point WaS in accordance with the High Court ruling. Mr. Charman is to be allowed to use the Bedford lorry and the conditions 'are to be varied to permit him greater freedom.