Arestern. Hauliers Alleged to Gain Licences More Easily than Welsh
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SUGGESTIONS that Western Area operators were obtaining steel traffic from South Wales at the expense of Welsh hauliers, because it was more difficult to obtain additional vehicles from the South Wales Licensing Authority, were refuted, at Bristol on Monday, when J. Smith (Bicknor), Ltd., English Bicknor, Glos, applied to add three vehicles of 26 tons to their A licence.
Mr. T. D. Corpe, for the applicants, tid that they were old-established auliers with 18 vehicles on A and seven n B licence. They had applied because tere were increasing demands to transort steel, Furnacite and building taterials. Vehicles sought were an articuLted unit, with alternative tipper and fiat uni-trailers; a rigid tipper of 9 tons and drop-sided vehicle of 8 tons.
Referring to the withdrawal of four oath Wales objectors, Mr. Corpe menoned a letter written to a trade journal y one of them, Mr. J. M. Watkins. The :tter suggested that it was so difficult to at licences for additional vehicles in outh Wales that hauliers from the Vestern Area were getting in.
To his own knowledge, continued Mr. orpe, that was not correct. The South Vales Licensing Authority had granted a umber of additional vehicles to carry tee and an apnlication by British Road ervices (10 vehicles), was to be heard in :ardiff on Wednesday. It was significant -tat objection had been withdrawn, he dded.
Mr. S. W. Nelson, Western Licensing Luthority, said that notice could not be iken of such an allegation. Each case iould be dealt with on its own merit. Mr. T. B. Hannon, accountant manager f Smith, said that the company's urnover for the year ended February, 960, was £95,326. Hiring amounted to 8,636. Work for Richard Thomas and taldwins. Ltd., had increased by £10.965 uring the past year. Average earnings ler vehicle had increased from £3,379 n £3,849 and gross earnings by £18,808. Tiring included every available tipper in he Forest of Dean area.
Location of Base The company's base was 59 miles from Iristol, 40 miles from the works of lichard Thomas and Baldwins and four idles from the boundary of the South Vales Traffic Area, Mr. Hannon told the uthority.
Mr. John Pallister, a director of Rose, ;mith and Co. (Fuel), Ltd., London, said hat his company were transporting ncreasing amounts of Furnaeite from iouth Wales to coal merchants in _ondon, Essex and Hampshire. The pplicants were required to carry up to 0 loads a week.
Plant which had cost £60,000 had been nstalled in a new magnesium stone parry in the Forest of Dean, said Mr. R. limms, managing director of Stowfield )uarry, Ltd. Another £100,000 was to be pent on improvements.
For the British Transport Commission, vho objected, Mr. R. A. Webb submitted that although the railways were\ carrying increasing quantities of steel, there was no shortage of wagons. There was no reason -why any steel should go by road, he said. Most of the applicants' traffic arose in South Wales and there were no witnesses as to need for steel.
Asked by Mr. Nelson if the B.T.C. were appealing against the recent grants of additional vehicles without customer evidence, in the South Wales and Western areas, Mr. Webb said he had no instructions on that point.
Granting the application, Mr. Nelson said that it was obvious that transport by road was more economic in some cases. The only effective objection had , come from the railways, he said. Customers' needs were the prime consideration. The Bradbury appeal had determined that a Licensing Authority could deal with questions concerning another area, he concluded.
INDEPENDENT GROUP
THE Liverpool Cart and Motor Owners' Association was the only organization that could deal with haulage problems peculiar to Liverpool, said Mr. R. S. Harrison, immediate past president, last week. It was also the only group within the Road Haulage Association which retained its own identity and funds, he added.
Dangerous Lorry Case Dismissed
QUMMONSES alleging that a lorry had L.' been used in a dangerous condition and had not been maintained were dismissed by Widnes, Lanes, magistrates, last week. They decided that there was no case to answer but declined to award costs against the police.
The charges against Leonard Pritchard, Central Avenue, Speke, Liverpool, lorry driver, and his employers, Fred. Prescott, Ltd., Mersey View Road, Halebank. followed an incident at Halebank when a front wheel came off the lorry.
P.C. Richardson said that he found two locking nuts on the axle had screwed off and the complete wheel assembly, including the brake drum, had come adrift. The threads on the axle were slightly worn, he said. A director of Prescott, when interviewed, denied that the vehicle had not been maintained regularly.
Mr. E. Somerset Jones, defending, said that the bearing was shattered into small fragments. He suggested that the collar shattered and the bearings jammed.
He would produce an expert witness to testify that the metal could become tired and shatter because of a possible fragment of carbon left in the processing of the metal, he added. P.C. Richardson agreed that this could happen.
WORLD FAMOUS -FOR QUALITY " DRMSH goods are famous all over Li the world for their quality and, in Britain itself, the men of. the north are famous for their skills," said Mr. Philip A. Roth, a director of U.S. Industries. the American industrial concern, when he opened a new bay at Burtonwood Engineering Co., Ltd., Lanes, last week.