66 Wilful and Deliberate" Breach
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Mr. James Decides
.BY a "wilful and deliberate breach of their normal user, Shepherd and Hough, Ltd., Earlswood, Warwicks, had been able to earn considerable sums of money, said Mr. W. P. James, West Midland Licensing Authority, in a written decision published last week.
He allowed, in part, an application by the company (The Commercial Motor, January 15) for a new normal user to enable them to carry produce from Evesham, but he suspended the licence of the four vehicles concerned until May I. The matter, he said, was too serious to be overlooked.
In his decision the Authority pointed out that the company's three existing A licences covered 24 vehicles. Five, based at Earlswood, had a normal user of "building materials within 50 miles "; 17 carried a normal user beer in barrels and cases within 50 miles "; and two, based at Stirchley, had a similar normal Men
The company were seeking a new normal user for 16 vehicles for the carriage of market-garden produce from Evesham. The applicants claimed that following a change of policy by the Burton-on-Trent brewery companies, nine of the 17 vehicles at Burton would have become idle.
These had been drafted to Evesham and were used for vegetable and cannedgoods traffic. Five vehicles at Earlswood and the two at Stirchley were similarly transferred. Vehicles were being used in breach of the normal user declared in 1954.
The irregularity was admitted by the applicants, but Mr. John Shepherd, a director, had said that he and his fellow directors were under the impression that after denationalization and the remoVal of the 25-mile limit in January, 1955, they were free to operate A-licensed vehicles "anywhere for anybody."
Mr. James said that on behalf of the large number of objectors it was submitted that there was no alternative to the complete refusal of all the applications.
So far as the licensing aspect of the case was concerned, the evidence certainly did not justify a grant being made, he added. It was Unfortunate for the applicants that financial considerations compelled them to sell eight special-A vehicles within the past few months.
The Authority, however, decided to grant part of the application by authorizing the use of four additional vehicles at Evesham, with a new normal user. The applications for the other vehicles were refused on the ground of insufficient evidence.
PREVENTION OF DECLINE
A PAPER which examines the nature ri of cities and suggests some things which must he done to prevent their decline in the face of modern traffic problems, will be presented by Mr. Christopher Brunner, vice-chairman of the British Road Federation, on February 18 at the Friends' Meeting House. Euston Road, London, N.W.1, at 6 p.m.