• Yorkshire Pool B attle Concluded
Page 45
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
BITTER exchanges on the ethics of travel brochure publicity matter marked the closing stages of the hearing of the Yorkshire Pools application to run a Sunday service from Bradford to Derby Airport, for the clients of Gaytours, the Blackpool travel company. This was heard in Leeds last week.
The application had been opposed by Wallace Arnold Tours and Sheffield United Tours, and Mr. F. S. Marshall, for Wallace Arnold, castigated it as " monstrous " and said it had caused more concern to both objectors than any previdus application he could remember.
But in reply Mr. H. G. Hall, for the applicant, said the attempt was being made to provide a facility not offered by Sheffield United Tours or Wallace Arnold. He wondered whether it was merely a coincidence that Sheffield United had produced a pamphlet dealing with a service to Derby Airport, in time for the application.
Mr. Malcolm Barr, of Wallace Arnold, said earlier statements at the hearing that about 80 per cent of travel concerns put " puff " matter in their brochures, and that agents accepted this, providing it did not mislead the public, were quite contrary to all the attempts of the various associations of travel agents to get decent standards in the industry.
On the other hand he would say that the majority of travel companies put out very clear explanations in brochures. Only a small minority misled the public.
Mr. Marshall, concluding, said that the Gaytours brochure was a most misleading one so far as the public was concerned.
He instanced such statements as '' You are picked up by your coach from your home town . ." and on the return journey . . " here our coach is waiting for the return journey."
Mr. Marshall said that under current arrangements by Gaytours from Southend airport, when an aircraft arrived back late, clients would find "our" coach did not exist. When they had to make their way back to the north by train, it must be a shattering realization.
In his view, the whole thing was deliberately misleading and merely designed to bring the money in. With the scandalous way the travel business was being maligned, he warned Gaytours that it should be careful what it did.
Mr. Hall said that no moral criticisms had been levelled against West Yorkshire/ Yorkshire Pools, the applicant, who would, in fact, be responsible for the proper administration of the licence. Moreover, the company was the established operator along the route which it proposed to service.
Sheffield United Tours certainly had not the capacity to cover the Gaytours bookings, even up to January 12 this year, and Wallace Arnold had no service over the route.
Consequently, the cbjectors had been reduced to " sniping " at witnesses. He asked that a public need be met.
The Chairman of the Traffic Commissioners, Major F. S. Eastwood, -said he would give his decision shortly.