rouble with neighbours "These neighbours of mine are going to
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put me out of business". This is not an uncommon complaint from hauliers whose operating centres are in residential areas. The environmental provisions of the Transport Act often seem grossly unfair to long established operators. One haulage contractor in the North recently applied for a renewal of his Operator's • Licence. He operated eight vehicles and wanted to increase his fleet to 10. But he had received a petition which was signed by 17 householders in the area of his operating centre objecting to the grant of a new licence. The grounds of the objection were summarised as: 1.Potential danger to children attending the local school.
2.Continual damage to the roads and pavement.
3.Noise of forklift trucks loading and unloading at all hours.
4.Noise when the vehicles were being driven through surrounding streets on their way to and from the operating centre.
On the face of it the haulier had a problem. The Traffic Commissioner can refuse to grant a licence on environmental grounds even with an established operating centre if there is a material change. An addition of two vehicles would represent such a change. Even if he grants the licence the Commissioner can impose conditions which would have a serious effect upon the viability of the business,such as limiting the times when the operating centre can be used. But all is not necessarily lost. Any operator Faced with a petition or representations should consider the following: Have the representors followed the rules? There are strict procedures which have to be followed. The representations must all be in writing and they must be signed by the person making it. They must be sent to the Traffic Commissioner and a copy (an exact copy) must be sent to the operator within 21 days of the date the advert appears in the local newspaper. Finally, the written representation must set out the grounds. If these provisions are not complied with to the letter, the Commissioner has no power to entertain the representation unless there are exceptional circumstances. The Transport Tribunal has said on a number of occasions that public inquiries under the Transport Act "should not be a free-for-all". Representors who have not complied with the regulations should not be heard unless they can give an exceptional excuse, such as being in hospital at the time. The most extreme example of this was a case involving a major national operator where no less than 640 representations were made in a petition, but the resident who organised the petition forgot to send a copy to the operator within the 21 -day period. None of the representations were allowed and the licence was granted.
Do thepeqple *Ding the petition actually Liveinthe To make a va id representation a neighbour must show that the use or enjoyment of his land is capable of being prejudicially effected by the proposed use as an Operating Centre.The neighbour must be able to hear, see or smell the vehicles when they are being parked.
Does the objection relate to their property? In the case quoted above only one of the grounds was valid . Road safety, damage to the roads, inconvenience to other persons such as children attending schools are all matters for the police or the local authorities.
Do the complaints relate to parking? The Commissioner has no power to restrict the commercial operation of the centre; he can only restrict the parking or maintenance of the vehicles while they are parked. Complaints of the noise from forklift trucks loading vehicles from a warehouse are not relevent in such a case.
Do They Know What They Have Signed? Many people will sign petitions without realising what they are actually doing. In the example quoted above the haulier visited all the representors and found that a significant number of them had signed the petition without realising it was to be presented to the Commissioner.
As a result of the visits a number of the supposed representors wrote to the Commissioner withdrawing their representation. This threw the status of the petition into doubt. Only the resident who had organised it turned up at the public inquiry and he was not permitted to speak on behalf of any of the other residents as he could not produce their written authority to do so. The licence was granted, without conditions. The environmental provisions of the Transport Act cause concern to many hauliers: they are probably the sections of the Act most criticised by local authorities, hauliers and residents alike. But approach the problem correctly and the position may not be as bad as it seems.