Seven Appeals Decided After Two-month Silence: Six Fail
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AFTER an interval of two months, during which no appeal decisions have been given by the Minister of Transport, seven eases have been settled. Of these appeals, six were dismissed and one was allowed, although the inspector of the Ministry of Transport, in this instance, recommended that the appeal be dismissed with costs.
In the appeal of the Eastern National Omnibus Co., Ltd., against a decision of the Eastern Licensing Authority refusing a backing for a licence granted by the Metropolitan Licensing Authority, the Minister disagreed with the inspector's recommendations. The Metropolitan Authority had granted a licence for a stage service from Bishop's Stortford to Thaxted, via Elsenham, to replace a rail service from Thaxted to Elsenham. The inspector, Mr. E. C. P. Lascelles, recommended that the appeal be dismissed with costs, but the Licensing Authority has Inv ordered to issue a backing.
An appeal by the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., and Associated Motorways, Ltd., against the Western Licensing Authority's decision to allow a local firm, Empress Coaches, to rim a group of excursions and tours from suburbs of Bristol, has also been dismissed. The Minister declares that the decision was not to be taken as indicating that he agreed with the departure which the Licensing Authority had made in this particular case from the normal practice, that services catering for passengers with period return fares should be treated as ordinary express services, and not as excursions and tours.
Claim to Protection The two appellants protested against the authorization of period return fares on the services operated by Empress Coaches, who were operators of day excursions and tours, They felt they were entitled to protection, having offered period return fares for many years. The inspector, Mr. R. L. H. Hiscott, recommended that the appeal should fail.
The Eastern National Omnibus Co., Ltd., was the respondent in an appeal made by Birch Bros., Ltd. This contested a decision of the Metropolitan Licensing Authority granting certain excursions and tours to the appellant.. The appeal was dismissed.
The ease made by Birch Bros., Ltd., was that in cutting downits application for excursions and tours from Hitchin, and two months later granting certain excursions and tours in the area to Eastern National, the Licensing Authority was prejudging the respondent's case.
In his observations, Mr. W. Tudor Davies, the inspector, declared that the Licensing Authority had not done so, but had tried to balance the needs of the two applicants, both of which were established stage-carriage operators in the area. He had considered the relation of additional facilities to existing ones. . Furthermore, "an objector to an application could say that if need be proven, which we deny, then we must share in its. satisfaction." .
Bradford Corporation's objections to the grant by the Yorkshire Licensing Authority of a stage-carriage licence to West Yorkshire Road Car Co., Ltd., enabling the company to serve an estate lying off a corporation route passing near it, have been set aside. The case for the separate service by the company rested on the fact that the estate was built on hilly ground.
For the corporation, it was stated that the company's route into the estate represented an• extension of only 580 yds. from the corporation route to Shipley, that there were only 91 houses on top of the hill, and that five-sixths of the traffic carried by the company on its service was abstracted from the corporation. It was suggested that protective fares should be applied, or that the company should divert its Leeds-Keighley service.
The inspector observed that the company service was unremunerative and it did not seem unreasonable that the municipal undertaking should lose a little traffic to the new service to make it less unremunerative.
Another appeal concerning services from aerodromes has been dismissed. Layfield Bus Services, Ltd., appealed against the decision of the Northern Licensing Authority refusing a group of excursions and tours from Goosepool Royal Air Force Station.
Similarly, the appeal of Florence Motors, Ltd., against the refusal of the Yorkshire Licensing Authority to grant a new group of excursions and tours from Hellifield to Morecambe was dismissed.
30 STANDING AT PEAKS TWO single-deck 40-seaters are to be I , adapted to carry 30 seated and 30 standing passengers for peak-hour operation by Sheffield Transport Department. There will be double seats down one side of the vehicle and single seats along the other.
If the buses do not prove popular, they will be restored to their former state.
BRADY LOWERS PRICES
HAVING recently introduced new production methods which lower manufacturing costs, G. Brady and Co., Ltd., Ancoats, Manchester, has reduced the prices of its van shutters by 20 per cent, as from July 1.
The annual report of the British Transport Commission will be published to-day.