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Men in the News

13th February 1953
Page 32
Page 33
Page 32, 13th February 1953 — Men in the News
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

MR. G. N. SWAYNE, F.S.E.,

has been elected president of The Society of Engineers.

MR. W. G. ALLEN. F.C.A., chairman of Atkinson Lorries (Holdings), Ltd., sailed for South America last week.

MR. A. E. FOWLES, spares superintendent of A.C.V. Sales, Ltd., recently retired after 38 years' service in this capacity.

MR. R. E. SUGDEN, assistant general manager of Eastern Coach Works, Ltd., will take over the duties of general manager on March I.

MR. K. N. AXTEN has been appointed a representative of Abingdon King Dick, Ltd., for the North Midlands, North Wales, Lancashire and Yorkshire.

SIR GRAHAM CUNNINGHAM, chairman and managing director of the Triplex Safety Glass Co., Ltd., has sailed to Trinidad. He will be back in London on March 9.

MR. I. L. GRAY, general manager of Hebble Motor Services, Ltd., will succeed M. DAVID E. BELL, ORE., general manager of the Yorkshire Woollen District Transport Co., Ltd., when Mr. Bell retires on March 31.

MR. J. H. BERRY Will be the Bristol district manager of the Vacuum Oil Co., Ltd., under MR. J. N. LISTER, manager of the southern automotive division, .following the absorption of the Bristol branch by the southern division.

CAPT. G. A. P. UPSTON has been reelected chairman and MR. J, W ELLIS vice-chairman of the clearing house group of the Road Haulage Association. In the Eastern Area, Miss C. M. PAYNE and MR. W. ROWLATT have become chairman and vice-chairman respectively of Bedford Sub-area; MR. G. W,. GovEy chairman and MR. J. W. COOMBER vice chairman of Peterborough Sub-area; and MR. S. BOARDLEY chairman of Great Yarmouth Sub-area, with MR H. C. CASE and MR. N. J. Wicc as vice-chairmen. MR. E. HOPKINS has -been appointed chairman of North Devon Sub-area and MR. J. LOVERING, vice-chairman.

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MR. ROBERT TAYLOR. general manager of Dundee Transport Department, who retires on February 28, was made a presentation last week at a meeting of the Scottish Road Passenger Transport Association.

MR. H. Elam has been elected chairman of the North-Eastern Area of the National Conference of Road Trans

port Clearing Houses. It has been decided to reorganize the Area, which has suffered particularly heavily through nationalization.

OBJECT OF BILL DEFEATED A PRIVATE Bill will have to be promoted if Bristol Corporation wishes to dispose of its half share in the city joint bus services. Last October, the council proposed to approach Members of Parliament to obtain amendments to the Transport Bill which would give the corporation power to deal with the joint services.

In a letter to the town clerk, Mr. Gurney Braithwaite, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, has stated that the suggested amend

ments would be outside the scope of the Bill and could not be accepted. Moreover, in seeking to enable the British Transport Commission to acquire a local authority's interest in such an undertaking, the amendments were inconsistent with the Government's policy, as reflected in the Bill.

2d. AN HOUR MORE

THE minimum rate for craftsmen in the vehicle-building industry has been brought to 3s. 5d. an hour by a 2d.-an-hour increase awarded last week by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal. More than 20,000 workers, including women and juniors, benefit by the award.

Tour Not a Special Occasion

ATOUR organizer who arranged coach trips for his friends on August Bank Holiday week-end was fined £3 at Kendal last week. The court held that the vehicles were not run on special occasions, but on tours for which road service licences were required.

A traffic examiner of the Ministry of Tiansport said that Messrs. E. Nelson and Sons, Arnside, Westmorland, ran ‘thicles to the south of Scotland, West Cumberland and the Derbyshire Dales on August 3. The coaches operated from Burneside and Kendal, from which places the firm had no licences to run tours, although they were authorized to run tours from Arnside. Alexander William Walker, Churchill Court, Burneside, the organizer, said that all the passengers were his friends.

Prosecuting, Mr. L. Lightfoot stated that unless there were some purpose for which the tours were run, such as the Coronation, they could not be operated without a licence. A sightseeing tour was not a special occasion. Mr. T. M. Backhouse, defending, said that the prosecution maintained that the special occasion should be at the destination of a tour, but he submitted that an annual outing could also be called a special occasion.

Anyone was entitled to take a party to the seaside, provided that he paid for the whole of the coach. The case affected half the firm's business.

Messrs. Nelson were also fined for the offences. Fines were imposed upon the firm and three drivers for breaches of the drivers' hours regulations.

[Section 25 (1) (c) of the Road Traffic Act, 1934, refers, in defining the circumstances in which contract carriages may be run, to the operation of tours.] CRUSH-LOADER FOR NEWPORT

FOLLOWING a proposal made recently by Cllr. C. A. Stone that crush-load single-deckers be operated in Newport. Mon, an obsolete vehicle is being rebuilt to provide seating for 32 passengers and standing room for 30.

The old body has been taken off and the frame lengthened. The seats will be either singles along each side facing forward or of the longitudinal bench type. There will be a central entrance and exit 4 ft. wide.

Appellant Weakens Own Case

AN appeal lodged by Listerh ills Taxis and Private Hire, Ltd., against the refusal of the Yorkshire Licensing Authority to grant a licence for a new group of excursions and tours starting from Greenside, Clayton, Bradford, has been dismissed with costs.

The appellant held that the existing facilities did not satisfy the needs of the 16,000 people in Clayton, a suburb of Bradford, 31 miles from the centre of the city. No abstraction would, it was submitted, be caused by the facilities proposed. Another suburb of the city had a facility of this sort, and the need for one from Clayton had been established.

Mr. R. Syke, representing the Railway Executive, Wardways. Ltd., Feather Bros. (Tours), Ltd., and the West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., said that the gist of the application was the question of getting from Clayton to the centre of Bradford. The local representative of the suburb on the town council had done nothing about the matter.

Recommending the dismissal of the appeal, Mr.. W. Tudor Davies declared that the appellant had weakened his case by his endeavour to throw on the objectors the onus of an approach to Bradford Corporation with regard to connections with the centre of the city.

ONE-WAY SINGLE-DECKER AT NOTTINGHAM TRIALS at Nottingham with the 1 pay-as-you-enter trolleybus ordered by Glasgow Corporation, which has been lent to Nottingham Corporation, were due to finish this week-end. Unlike the first vehicle of this type operated by Glasgow, the new trolleybus has a central exit, instead of one at the front, and the new body was built by East Lancashire Coachbuilders, Ltd., Blackburn.

Seating capacity is 27, with space for 30-40 standing passengers. The conductor, seated at the rear, has a changegiving machine and an Ultimate ticketissuing machine.

W. BRIDGFORD'S BILL OPPOSED

PETITIONS against a Bill promoted by West Bridgford Urban District Council have been filed by seven East Midland bus companies, including Trent Motor Traction Co., Ltd., Barton Transport, Ltd„ the South Notts Bus Co., Ltd., and Robin Hood (Coaches), Ltd.

The Bill provides for the running of vehicles for special purposes not only over authorized routes, but also on any road within a radius of West Bridgford. The Trent concern contends that its interests are adversely affected by the measure, and points out that it has provided efficient services for many years and spent large sums on vehicles and depots.

WELLS TO SELL OUT

THE oldest existing bus operator in North Staffs, Wells Motor Services, Ltd., is to be acquired by the Potterics Motor Traction Co., Ltd. To be the seventh concern bought out by P.M.T. in recent years, Wells Motor Services, Ltd., was founded in 1911. It runs 20 buses on routes in North Staffs and Cheshire. It is understod that the services will continue to be operated as at present.

THE " WINK "

THE Minister of Transport informed the House of Commons on Monday that draft regulations are to be circulated shortly permitting the use in this country of flashing direction indicators as an alternative to the semaphore type.