N.M.U. Application Ends on Sixth Day
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I--/ URING the fifth day's hearing, last
Friday, of the application by Northern Motor Utilities, Ltd.. for the renewal of A licences for 37 vehicles 'used on trunk services from Manchester, the almost unlimited protection which the railway companies claim, was enunciated in detail.
Mr. A. Tylor, for the railways, declared that the grounds of the application were that there was a demand for the applicant's services, and that the vehicles were fully employed. If that were all that was necessary as evidence of need for the continuance of the services, why did Parliament think it necessary to set up this machinery to determine an issue which could be decided by an accounting clerk with a sliding scale?
The suggestion that the railways were seeking a novel monopoly was false ; they were merely asking the licensing
authority to apply a principle which
had been followed by Parliament for at least the past 100 years. The maintenance of the status quo was contrary to the express purpose of the 1933 Act.
Mr. Henry Deckhouse, for the applicant, replied to the railway case on Monday, when the proceedings closed after six days' hearing. He pointed out that, but for the railway objections, the application could have been granted without an inquiry.
The intention of the Act was that the grant made by Parliament itself for the first currency period should establish a status quo, which should not he disturbed unless this course were proved essential in the interests of those who required transport, those providing it and the public generally. The railways had not attempted to prove that the N.M.U. vehicles were redundant.
The North Western Licensing Authority reserved his decision.