Swinards court win on UK tour licences
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SWINARDS have got their licence for British tours. In a reserved decision the Metropolitan Traffic Commissioners permitted Swinards British and Continental Tours Ltd to operate British tours of up to 14 days' duration.
Swinards sought a licence to offEr booking facilities in Londor on tours they currently operate under the 12th schedule of the Road Traffic Act. The proposals led to objections from National Travel, Wa lace Arnold Tours, Grey Green Coaches, Glenton Tours and Excelsior European Mo-.orways. The Commissioners reserved their decision after a four-day hearing (CM, July 6).
In their decision, the Commissioners said that it had been argued that the public interest should be interpreted as the interest of the public normally resident in Britain and that the proposals would seriously damage the businesses of existing licensed operators — to the disbenefit of the public.
However, tourism was being encouraged at the present and any modest improvement to touring in this country was likely to encourage more visitors from overseas — which was in the interest of the British public.
The Commissioners remarked they were not aware that section 135 of the Road Traffic Act purported to discriminate between the public of one country or another. It had been suggested the intention of the amendment to section 135 was to secure some relaxation of the criteria to be applied to the Licensing of tours which would perhaps stimulate competition and inventiveness.
But the Commissioners had to take into account the objectors' point that too many licensed tours would actually damage the public interest.
The Commission decided that there was no obvious risk of abstraction but felt the licence should be restricted to a vehicle allowance of one on each tour.