Was Bus Used Legally to Carry Workers?
Page 34
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE Sheriff of Dumfries had to decide last week whether a double-decker being used to carry workers to the Annan atomic pbwer station site at Chapel Cross was being run legally, and deferred his decision until next Monday. Public Transport Facilities, Ltd., 56 Stockport Road, Manchester, pleaded not guilty to operating the vehicle without a public service vehicle licence.
They claimed that the workers did not pay fares, and that the Vehicle was, therefore, being used by the site contractors. An official examiner said that a licence for the bus was surrendered last October, when the vehicle was transferred to the company, and there had been no application for another licence He agreed that contractors providing their own transport for their workers did not need public service vehicle licences. as the passengers were not carried for hire or reward, but he maintained that the company were under an arrangement to operate the vehicle.
Two passengers said that they paid no fares, but were given free passes. Mr. L. 13. Knowles, consulting engineer for Messrs. Merz and McLellan, agents for the Atomic Energy Authority, stated that so far as he knew no payments would be made to workers who had to find other transport.
Mr. D. Bayliss, a director of the defendants, said that the matter had been studied thoroughly and the conclusion had been reached that they were not, in law, the users of the vehicle. As Messrs. Merz and McLellan were paying for the hire of the vehicle, it was thought unnecessary to have a licence.