Mr. Hanlon Continues Clean-up Campaign
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"Grave Doubt" Over Whether an Applicant ShouldHold an A Licence
THE campaign to maintain proper standards of conduct in the haulage
industry being waged by Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, Northern Licensing Authority, was continued at Newcastle upon Tyne, last week. He heard a resumed application by Mr. Daniel Burns (The Commercial Motor, March 11), but a further adjournment was ordered when it was staled that it was proposed to assign or transfer the business to a new company, A. and A. Haulage (Newcastle), Ltd.
Mr. Burns, who had earlier denied that his vehicle had been nearby when he had been arrested and charged with being a reputed thief loitering near a post office, told the Authority that his wife and a lorry-driver friend would be directors of the new company.
He would be employed as a driver and had invested £2,000 in the cOmpany. He owed the hire-purchase concern £1,100 and claimed that if things went wrong his business would not be worth much.
Granting the adjournment, Mr. Hanlon said that if the business were to continue operations under the cloak of Mr. Burns' wife, he would expect " somebody " to come forward and say that it had to stop. He was satisfied that the public Interest clause in the 1933 Act should have been applied when the original A-licence application had been made in August, 1959.
Previous Conduct
Mr. Burns had applied to vary an A licence by adding a vehicle of 3 tons 6 cwt. in substitution for one of 2 tons 11 cwt. Notice had been given to the applicant of the Authority's proposal to take into account his previous conduct as a carrier of goods in accordance with Sections 6 (2) of the 1933 Act, and in particular certain convictions and prohibitions registered against him since 1957.
During a lengthy legal argument between the Authority and Mr. T. H. Campbell Wardlaw, representing Mr. Burns, Mr. Wardlaw said that the Authority had to bear in mind two separate aspects. The proposal to revoke or suspend fell within the ambit of Section 13 of the 1933 Act, while the application for variation was governed by the provisions of Section 6.
"Not Proper Person" Mr. Wardlaw reminded Mr. Hanlon that an application had been made by Mr. Burns f9r a further special-A licence in June or July of last year. According to his instructions, that application had been refused on the ground that Mr. Burns was not a proper person to hold such a licence.
If his instructions were correct, this raised a point of principle, because an Authority had no power to refuse a special-A licence on the ground of the previous conduct of the applicant.
"That is something which Parliament has slipped up over," said Mr. Hanlon. "When the 1953 Act was passed, the factors of previous conduct.
B30
Death of Scots Pioneer
WE regret to record the death of Mr. John C. Sword who built up the road transport business which later became Western S.M.T. Co., Ltd. Mr. Sword died on Sunday at his home, Craigwell, Blackburn Road. Ayr, at the age of 67. He was a pioneer in passenger road transport and aviation in Scotland and a collector of vintage cars, furniture, paintings, and clocks.
Born in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, where his family lived for generations, he started work at the age of 14 in his father's bakery business. Many years later, in 1951, he received the freedom of Airdrie.
In the early 1920s he began with four buses. a service between Coatbridgc and Kilsyth. This business extended into a fleet of 400 buses operating in the West of Scotland and from Glasgow to London, Liverpool and Manchester.
When his company amalgamated with the Western S.M.T., Mr. Sword became general manager and a director. He at one time owned 26 aircraft. He started his first air ferry and air ambulance service to the Western Isles.
SCOTLAND YARD SWOOP ON LORRY THIEVES •
SCOTLAND YARD are mopping up a ring of lorry thieves, believed to have stolen thousands of pounds worth of vehicles and their contents over the past several months.
The operation followed a swoop on an isolated Kentish farmhouse on Sunday night when Flying Squad detectives discovered a large articulated vehicle stolen only 24 hours earlier.
Detectives, acting on information given by an underworld informant, also discovered a metal canister which once contained cigarettes valued at £28,000; part of a £3,000 consignment of shoes and parts of several dismembered vehicles.
Parts bearing chassis numbers are being examined at the Yard. Mr. Wardlaw. Subsequently, in August, 1959, Mr. Burns made application for the public A licence, which he now held, and this was granted notwithstanding the fact that his conduct had been at issue on the previous occasion.
Mr. Hanlon said that when Burns had been granted the A licence in August, that was his opportunity to start afresh and put his affairs in order. But there had been prohibitions since then.
Mr. Wardlaw argued that, but for the previous conduct about which he had been summoned to appear, the fact that a prohibition notice had been served would not, in itself, have prompted the Authority to revoke or suspend the licence. Not only was the notice coloured, but it was positively activated by his client's previous conduct.
He submitted that if Mr. Burns' conduct had to be taken into consideration, this should have been done when the application had been made for the substantive licence in August.
Should Have Been Refused "You are saying that his licence should have been refused in August On the very grounds that you now say it should not be revoked? " asked Mr. Hanlon.
Mr. Wardlaw did not agree and said that if Mr. Burns had satisfied the Authority in August, what had happened since was not sufficient for it to be said that be was not now a fit and proper person to hold the licence.
If the police had come forward in August and said that the man was not a fit and proper person, he might not have got his licence . then, said Mr. Hanlon. He had "grave doubts" whether the applicant ought to have had the licence granted to him at all.
If a person holding a licence was caught by the police committing crime in circumstances involving a licensed vehicle, he thought it was the duty of the police to appear and object, declared Mr. Hanlon.
Three Years' Gaol
There had been no authoritative ruling on the issue, said Mr. Wardlaw, and it was because of this that the matter referred to at Durham last week (The Commercial Motor, March 25)—when a licence had been refused to a haulier serving three years' imprisonment—was being taken to appeal before the Transport Tribunal.
Mr. Hanlon replied that if the Tribunal thought fit to order him to grant a licence to somebody with a criminal record then he would have no alternative but to grant it. If he were wrong, he would welcome the views of the Tribunal.
Giving evidence, Mr. Burns said that since the last inquiry he had "thought about" his denials. His recollection was now clearer and, in fact, there had been a vehicle involved. He also admitted other convictions, as well as prohibition notices issued against his vehicle.