A-licence Bid Withdrawn at Perth
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AN applicant who had brought a I-1 number of witnesses to a sitting of the deputy Scottish Licensing Authority at Perth last week withdrew his application before his own cross-examination was completed.
He was Mr. A. M. MacDonald, haulage contractor, of Thornhill, West Perthshire. He applied for an A licence for one vehicle and said he would surrender the Contract A licence :which he had w:th a Stirling firm.
Letters submitted from farmers, stated that Mr. MacDonald was "of invaluable service " to the West Highlands as a transporter of fodder and livestock, and the area would be even, more dependent on road haulage if proposed rail closures were effected. .
Mr. MacDonald said the area did not grow its own fodder; • which had to be transported from Stirling. Sheep had to he taken away from the severe conditions to be wintered in Morayshire and the Lowlands. He had a terrible time coping with this with his two A vehicles, he added.
Cross-examining for the only objectors, the British Railways Board, Mr. J. N. Vass asked Mr. MacDonald if he had applied ,for an additional A licence in 1961. and had agreed then at a meeting of the road-rail negotiating committee to surrender a contract licence he had then with the Stirling firm.
Mr. MacDonald agreed, and said the undertaking he had given was not to apply for another Contract A licence for a year.
Mr. A. Whitehead, the . applicant's solicitor, said the information about the previous application was new to him and he was prepared to withdraw the application and to surrender the present Contract A licence.
The applicant, said Mr. Whitehead, had thought, rightly or wrongly, that the undertaking he was asked to give was for a year. It was a genuine mistake.
Mr. A. B. Birnie, the deputy Licensing Authority, said he 'would not like to determine precisely the length of time that such a guarantee should cover. He agreed with Mr. Whitehead that circumstances could change in the haulage industry, but thought that after a short period, like two years or less, some explanation ought most certainly to have been given.