Bending the rules
Page 22
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TRAFFIC COMMISSIONERS will, in certain circumstances, be able to lift conditions they have attached to a road service licence.
The Government voted in favour of the change during Committee discussion of the Transport Bill last week.
The amendment put forward by Transport Minister Norman Fowler, in the face of Labour opposition, says that compliance with any condition attached to a road service licence may be temporarily dispensed with if the Commissioners are satisfied on two points.
These are that compliance with the condition would be unduly onerous through unforeseen circumstances when the condition was attached or last altered, and that such a dispensation would not be against the interests of the public.
Mr Fowler gave a pledge that in principle the Bill would retain the present requirement that Commissioners would have to publish a notice of a proposal to vary a licence or notify the interested parties.
Operators and local authorities would be consulted as to the precise form of the new regulations.