'Toughest' environmental case
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• W Pickup, trading as Top Gear Transport, has been granted an increase in its 0licence authority to 20 vehicles and 36 trailers. But North Western Licensing Authority Martin Albu said he hoped the company would begin its search for larger, more environmentally suitable premises as soon as practicable.
The Rochdale-based company has two operating centres. Its Forsyth Street depot is in a short cul-de-sac and its gate is directly opposite a terrace of houses. A number of residents there made representations about noise in the early morning.
For the company, John Backhouse said that Forsyth Street was its maintenance base. About 90% of the traffic was for a major retail clothing outlet and the time of delivery in city centres and at transfer depots was critical. Everything possible had been done to minimise movements, including the time engines were left running in the early morning.
If the company was unable to expand its fleet, it risked losing the contract.
Following a site visit, Albu said that it was probably the most difficult environmental case of its type he had encountered. The representors clearly had a problem, but it was an existing operating centre and he had to balance his sympathy for the residents with the company's commercial needs.
Imposing a condition that no more than 14 vehicles and 17 trailers should be at Forsyth Street at any one time, Albu said that was the limit specified by the company in its newspaper advertisement. Forsyth Street was near to its capacity, he warned.