Base is More Than "Paper Declaration" —Tangle Brings 3 Months' Suspension
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A N operator's base must be more than a "paper declaration "—it was r-k an important rule of licensing and hauliers who departed from it did so at their own peril. Mr. W. P. James, West Midland Licensing Authority, said this, at Birmingham last week, when he suspended an A licence for three vehicles operated by Crompton Garage Co., Ltd., West Bromwich, for three months from May 17.
The company had been called to show cause why their licence should not be revoked or suspended under Section 9 (4) of the 1953 Act. In November, 1958, following a similar inquiry into an unauthorized change of base from Handsworth to Derby, decision was reserved to give Crompton Garage an opportunity to seek a new licence in the East Midland Area.
An application had been made and listed for hearing in May, 1959, but this was adjourned at the request of Crompton Garage. A second date, fixed for June. was withdrawn on counsel's advice, and an application made by an associated company, Highfield Transport (Derby), Ltd., to add the same vehicles to their A licence.
Used Irregularly This •was refused by Mr. C. R. Hodgson, East Midland Licensing Authority on March 17. Mr. Hodgson said that the vehicles were being used irregularly at Derby and evidence of need was weak. In his view he and the West Midland Authority had been deceived. The applicants had played for time, he stated.
Events which had taken a very long course ' had reached finality with the refusal of the Derby application, said Mr. James.
Mr. Joseph Ashmore, a director of Crompton Garage and their associated companies, Highfield Transport, (Derby). Ltd., J. Ashmore (Contractors), Ltd., and Ashmore Auto Engineers, Ltd., said that after the withdrawal of the application in June, 1959, the vehicles returned to Birmingham. When an application was made to the West Midland Authority, in November, to operate from West Bromwich, the Walsall company for whom the vehicles had been working refused to support the application. The vehicles were then taken back to Derby.
Transferred to Birmingham Since the refusal of the application in the East Midland Area, in March. the vehicles had again been taken to Birmingham. One was working for 20th Century Transport, Ltd., one for J. Ashmore (Contractors), Ltd. and the third was off the road, said Mr. Ashmore.
For the applicants, Mr. N. Carless said that the Licensing Authority's original decision left them in doubt over the licensing position. Their base at Handsworth had been closed and the company's registered office transferred to • West Bromwich. The vehicles were working from Derby and they had been advised to apply in that Area. When that application was refused they felt free to return to Birmingham. Even if the vehicles stayed in Derby with local drivers the control remained at West Bromwich.
The attempt to assist the company to regularize their base may have been confusing, said Mr. James, but some action had to be taken to penalize their selection of a more profitable base. The vehicles had been used by Highfield Transport as
part of their own fleet. If the vehicles had not been returned to Birmingham the licence would have been revoked.
An application by Crompton Garage for a new normal user for the licence was adjourned.
1071 RAILWAY ROUTE-MILES CLOSED LAST YEAR 1VIINIMUM annual savings of £695,458 IVI are estimated as a result of the closure of 1071 route-miles of passenger and freight services on British Railways during 1959. These figures were published in the annual report of the Central Transport Consultative Committee for Great Britain, published last week.
The figure for closures is the highest recorded annually and represents a striking comparison with the total of 2451route-miles closed in the period 1950-1958, which saved an estimated £2,586,339.
SLIGHT DROP IN LICENCES
NEW registrations of vehicles other than cars and motorcycles were a little lower in February (23,857) than in January (26,950). The total of new goods vehicles showed a striking advance from 13,236 in February, 1959, when the Budget was awaited with special interest, to 18,043 in the second month of this year.
Other details are summarized below:
£250m. A Year Wanted: Mr. Ingram's Swansong
EXPENDITURE of at least £250m. a year on the roads was demanded on Wednesday by Mr. R. N. Ingram in his last speech as national chairman of the
Road Haulage Association. He was speaking at the Association's annual dinner in London.
'Until we have the roads that we deserve," he said, "we must expect a certain amount of restriction, but this must not be made the excuse for doing nothing. The overriding consideration must remain the right of the individual to exercise complete freedom of choice as to the transport facilities he prefers."
To transfer certain kinds of traffic from road to rail would be a completely negative policy, and impracticable.
Far more often than not road haulage was the trader's first choice. The skill of hauliers' drivers enabled them to avoid accidents and to make the best use of .available road space. Professional hauliers also used their vehicles inten sively and kept them loaded for a far greater proportion of their working time than any otheroperator. Moreover, road haulage services enabled manufac. turers and shopkeepers to economize in storage space by reducing stocks. The space could be put to other uses including the parking of vehicles. .
Mr. Ingram described the railways as the "sick man of transport," but said they could hardly complain that they had not been given enough nourishment and restoratives. They had been the principal beneficiaries of the Welfare State so far as transport was concerned.
The Association hoped that the railways would be restored to health, although it was difficult to understand how this could be done without ruthless pruning. There were some things that the railways could do, perhaps, better than any other branch of transport. Those activities should be identified and exploited, but, first, there should be a far more serious inquiry than in the past into the comparative costs of carrying passengers and goods by rail. There must be no further misguided atteinpts to bolster up the railways by suppressing the activities of other providers of transport.