Licence is curtailed
Page 20
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• A truck operator based in Bedfordshire has
• e appeared at dis
ciplinary proceedings before Eastern Deputy Licensing Authority Ian Fowler over the unauthorised parking of vehicles in the commercial vehicle park at Sandy, following complaints from the town council.
BH King Transport, of Oakley, Bedford, was also seeking to renew its international Operators' Licence for 25 vehicles and trailers.
Fowler expressed concern about a number of convictions and the alleged unauthorised use of vehicles which were run by the company.
Director Basil King admitted that a vehicle had been parked on the commercial vehicle park over a considerable period of time. He said he did not think he was doing anything wrong.
The driver of the vehicle, Richard Fage, said that he lived close to the Sandy commercial vehicle park and he had no private transport to get to and from the company's pre
mises which were 13 miles away.
The unauthorised use complaints related to two demonstration vehicles, said King. After deciding to buy the first vehicle, the company was provided with a second demonstrator while the first one was being painted in the company's livery.
Convictions relating to a defective vehicle had been hotly contested. In two cases of insecure loads the drivers had not used the equipment provided and in another the driver had driven his vehicle too fast on a roundabout.
Renewing the licence, but curtailing it to 24 vehicles and trailers, Fowler said that he felt that the vehicle had been parked at Sandy so regularly that the vehicle park was becoming that vehicle's operating centre.
He said the fact that the driver had no means of transport was not an exceptional circumstance. A large organisation still had an absolute responsibility to avoid all offences, according to Fowler.