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11th October 1968
Page 63
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Page 63, 11th October 1968 — * Top twenty
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

As the years have, rolled by the task faced by the expert panel that adjudicates on the Manchester Corporation Cleansing Department vehicle maintenance and cleaning scheme has steadily become more difficult. Multiple ties 'and half-mark divisions have become common. There were three inspections in the 1967-68 year. Last November. 14 drivers gained maximum marks and only a quarter-mark separated the leaders from the runners-up. In March there were a dozen with maximum points.

The August inspection, awards for which were presented a: the department's annual vehicle parade last month, showed up 20 drivers whose vehicles could not be faulted. There are normally 18 cash awards ranging from £9 for the first, down to 10s. But faced with those 20 faultless competitors the organizers paid out £9 a head all round. The fleet championship, based on the results over the whole year, brought a tie between D. Baxter, L. Riley and T. Williams. all of whom preserved penalty-less records throughout the period.

FOR OPERATORS who see the threatened rigours of 1969 looming uncomfortably near documents dealing with the 12 months to the end of September 1967 seem to have little more relevance than Doomsday Book. In spite of regular protests the Ministry of Transport apparently does not find it possible to publish the reports of the Licensing Authorities until nearly a full year has passed since the events they chronicle. Observers of the prices and incomes policy may also care to note that the latest issue at 8s costs one shilling more than its predecessor, a price increase of 14 per cent in a year.

Even at this late stage the reports are worth studying. Apart from the useful tables at the end the Ministry leaves each Licensing Authority to tell his own story separately. Individual characteristics show through in spite of the official language. The reports reveal a wide range of humours from the kindly and witty at the one extreme to the stern and almost melancholic at the other.

General conclusions General conclusions are not easy to make from the evidence in the reports. Experiences differ in the traffic areas. Licensing Authorities are bound to vary in the emphasis they place on certain iterns and at some points they seem on the way to contradicting each other.

Comparisons between different years are sometimes more rewarding. There is clear evidence of a change in the pattern of objections between the 1965-66 and the 1966-67 reports. During those two years and for some years previously the annual total of "notifiable applications" for Aor B-licences and the annual total of objections have not varied greatly. There have been signs, however, of a slow decline in the weight of railway objections. In the last two years for which reports have been published the decline became a headlong retreat, from 5,065 or more than 20 per cent of the total in 1965-66 to 2,099, a mere 9 per cent in 1966-67.

In carrying out the policy of withdrawal from the traffic court arena the railways have not behaved uniformly in each area. In the earlier year 1,604 or nearly one-third of all railway objections were lodged in the North Western area. The figure fell to the insignificant total of 212 in 1966-67. In no other area was the reduction at anything like this rate and in South Wales—where railway objections, however, are few and far between—there was actually an increase from 11 to 26.

What one .would have liked to find in the latest reports was evidence that the considerable expenditure of time and money on threatening or persuading operators to improve their standards of vehicle maintenance had had some effect. Comparison of the number of vehicle examinations and the number of prohibitions over the last three or four years gives little encouragement.

In 1966-67 there were approximately 200,000 examinations resulting in 55,695 immediate or delayed prohibition notices. This is appreciably higher than the total of 52,612 notices in 1965-66, but may be


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