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No Right of Appeal Against These Deletions
Page 52
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TILE licensing pages of this journal -L have recently carried more cases than usual of revocations and deletions of vehicles from licences. In the Metropolitan area, the Licensing Authority, Mr. D. I. R. Muir, acting under the authority of Section 178 of the 1960 Act, revoked a four-vehicle A Licence because vehicles had not been operated in accordance with the declaration of intention made by the operator when he applied for the licence.
Under Section 178, a Licensing Authority is obliged to hold a public inquiry into the matter if the licensee so desires. If the operator is any way aggrieved by the Authority's action then, under that Section, he has.a right of appeal to the Transport Tribunal.
There is another section in the Act, Section 177, under the authority of which a Licensing Authority can remove a vehicle from the licence if it comes to his knowledge that it has ceased to be used for reasons other than a fluctuation in business, Recently Mr. Muir removed two vehicles from a London operator's licence under this section. Mr. Muir had the
courtesy to invite the licence holder to a public inquiry to explain the situation to him, but he need not have done so. It is not commonly known that Section 177 empowers an Authority to remove a vehicle without holding a public inquiry.
It is even less known that there is absolutely no right of appeal against the deletion of a vehicle under this sectionthis was decided' by the Tribunal in the Tapp appeal in 1954.
The Act, however, does not lay down how long a vehicle must stand before it can be considered to have "ceased to be used," etc. The usual practice adopted in roost traffic areas is to allow 12 months to elapse before taking this action. But the Act does not stipulate the time and, therefore, great care should be taken tc consider this when the de-taxing' 'of a vehicle is contemplated.
An interesting point is this. If a vehicle is removed from a licence under Section 177, the licence as such is still in existence. Certain legal opinion has it that there is nothing to stop an operator immediately acquiring' another vehicle and having it placed upon the licence. A technical matter, yes, but technicalities count in law!