Haulier rapped for withdrawing claim
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• A West Yorkshire company was attacked by North Eastern Deputy Traffic Commissioner Mark Hinchliffe for wasting public money when it withdrew its application for a new international licence at the start of a Huddersfield public inquiry.
Matwood, trading as Ward & Sons, of Lepton, Huddersfield, was seeking a new licence for 12 vehicles and nine trailers. Two previous companies, Ward Bros (Lepton) and Polaw had gone into liquidation.
The application was opposed by Kirklees District Council.
I Iinchliffe said he had concerns about finance, an unsatisfactory maintenance investigation and the unauthorised use of vehicles.
For the company, Stephen Kirkbright said he had received instructions to withdraw the application for financial reasons.
Hinchliffe said it was regrettable that those instructions had been received at a very late stage because of the public funds that had been wasted in setting up the public inquiry, That money, in these days of limited resources, would have been better spent in promoting road safety and high standards. He regretted that in such circumstances he had no power to award costs against the operator.
Hinchliffe commented that the company would have had an uphill struggle to persuade him to grant the application because of matters unrelated to finance. If any operator associated with Matwood were to seek a licence he wanted that application to be placed before him.
He also directed that the transcript of the decision in July to revoke the Polaw licence be taken into account in considering any such application.