Recovery men to seek review
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by Juliet Morrison • The Road Rescue Recovery Association is backing a bid by a group of operators in Gwent to seek a High Court judicial review against a police and county council scheme to contract out the management of roadside recoveries.
This follows similar action launched by the RRRA against Leicestershire Constabulary on the grounds of that the force
had acted beyond its legal powers (CM 9-15 June).
Gwent police are using Newport-based Wall's Truck Services to manage all roadside recoveries in the county in a 15month pilot designed to free police from managing a rota of on-call recovery operators. Gwent County Council says it will consult with operators during the pilot scheme and promises to "take on board any lessons".
But seven established recovery operators are angry that they have lost work which they relied on, in some cases for 30 years. Spokesman Malcolm Williams, owner of Langstone-based Hillcroft Garage, has been forced to make his two dri
vers redundant and to concentrate on his petrol filling station and workshop.
Wall's, which has contracted WG Lane & Sons of Abergavenny for recoveries in north Gwent, says the seven are bitter that they did not win the work, worth approximately £350,000 a year. The RRRA is guaranteeing £6,000 of the £14,000 the group has been told the action could cost. RRRA chairman Peter Cosby says: "It is the industry we are trying to protect, not just our members."