AUTHORITIES HAVE MISINTERPRETED ACT."
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Licensing Authorities have misinterpreted the Road and Rail Traffic Act by imposing conditions wholesale on B licences. This allegation was made by Mr. H. Backhouse (solicitor to the Commercial Motor Users Association), before Sir William Hart, North-Western Deputy Licensing Authority, when the railways objected to Mr. J. Nuttall, of Rochdale, being allowed to carry furniture to any part of Great Britain under a B licence, because his longest journey during the past year was 60 miles, Mr. Backhouse pointed out that Mr. Nuttall was a furniture remover, and submitted that evidence would benecessary to justify any restriction. He held that the special conditions under Section 8 (3) of the Act should be imposed only to prevent a B-licence operator from gaining an unfair advantage over an A-licensee. TheLicensing Authority should endeavour to restrict as little as possible the B-licensee, in order to protect the fulltime haulier from unfair competition— not from fair competition.
Mr. Backhouse considered that if, when making their original applications, hauliers had had legal advice, there would have been no special conditions on 50 per cent. of B licences.
Sir William Hart renewed the licence, but reserved his decision on the question of radius.