Busmen's New Hostel at Oxford
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CHA1RMAN of The City of Oxford Motor Services Ltd., Mr. W. M. Dravers, has welcomed the fact that Oxford City Council shared the view of the Buchanan Report on the need for public transport.
He was speaking recently at the opening by the Lord Mayor, Aid. J. N. L. Baker, of the company's new residential hostel and canteen for busmen at Cowley Road, Oxford. Mr. Dravers, who is also chairman of the Public Transport Association, said because Oxford had no unemployment problem the company had to do a lot of recruiting all over the United Kingdom, and sometimes even farther afield.
The hostel was intended to provide busmen with temporary rooms, giving them time to look for somewhere more permanent to live.
He said: These men come to Oxford. They like the city and they like the job, but all too often we are not able to hold them—unless they are unmarried, and there seems to be a shortage of bachelors —because they cannot get fixed up with accommodation."
He quoted two extracts from the Oxford Development Plan: in the long run traffic volumes could be kept within manageable limits only by the use of buses; and any long-term traffic plan had to allow the most favourable conditions for bus operation and had to assume that a large number of buses would be used. The eompany welcomed these views.
Ticket-cancelling Entrance on New One-man Buses
TEN one-man-operated, single-decker, 45-seater buses are to go into operation with Manchester Corporation by the end of the year. They will be employed in conjunction with the new reducedprice, book-form bus tickets (The Commercial Motor, last week).
The buses will have Park Royal bodies on Leyland Panther chassis, incorporating three passenger doors. A Corporation transport spokesman told The Commercial Motor there will be an entry door for direct payments to the driver and a second entry door where a ticketcancelling machine will recognize and stamp book-farm tickets and will deal with the proposed development whereby tickets could be bought at the bus stop before boarding. The third door will be used solely as an exit.
One of these new buses will, it is understood, be exhibited at the Commercial Motor Show this year.
B.R. Extend Cheap Day Fare; British Railways are to make a special 46s. return cheap day fare available on almost any train between Manchester and London, except on Sundays. The new fare, which will come into effect from September 7, will be available from a number of stations over a wide radius from the centre of Manchester. Cheap day fares for the through journey are at present restricted to certain early morning and late evening journeys.
Successful Objection by Tipper Group
THE West Midland deputy Licensing Authority, Mr. R. A_ Hall, in a reserved written decision has refused an application for a new three-vehicle B licence by G. W. Freeman to carry " sand! slag and filter media for Llanwern Slag Ltd., Boscobel Sand and Gravel Co. Ltd., and Wolverhampton Road Stone Co. Ltd., between the Midlands and South Wales ". The application, which was first heard last March, adjourned to a date in June and finally concluded on July I, was objected to by members of Monmouthshire Tippers Ltd,
Bitter Contest Describing the case as " the most bitterly contested application in my six years' experience ", Mr. Hall said that the witneses for the objectors were mainly concerned with haulage conditions at Llanwern. The burden of the objectors' complaint, he continued, was that the Llanwern company was mainly concerned with obtaining haulage at uneconomic rates so that hauliers in Monmouthshire had banded themselves together in self-protection, forming the Monmouthshire Tippers Ltd.—" a group of tipper operators who found it wise to offer their facilities for tipping as a group" which could offer 156 Aand just over 60 B-licensed vehicles.
Mr. Hall said that he thought the objectors had the better of the argument on the question of rates. but he decided the application on the evidence of need.
Having decided, at the end of the first day, that he did not think the applicant had made out a case, and having heard much •evidence at the two following hearings, Mr. Hall said he considered the amount of baulage that the three companies named in the application would require would not justify the grant of one extra vehicle, let alone the three asked for.
BOOTH APPLICATION ADJOURNED THE Northern Licensing ,Authority. Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, last week adjourned, until certain pending appeals have been determined by the Transport Tribunal, a B-licence application by A. '1. Booth (Manchester) Ltd.. of Middlesbrough, for.two tippers to carry road and building and site preparation materials and agricultural products, engineering material and equipment, within 60 miles of South Bank.
The application--which is in no way linked with the addition of vehicles and trailers for the carriage of steel from the Northern area--was lodged in May of this year.
B.R.S. Complains—I it Grant Confirmed
THE addition of a refrigerated vehicle to the A licence of Eldridge Haulage Ltd., of Bermondsey, was confirmed by the Metropolitan deputy Licensing Authority, Mr. C. J. Macdonald, last Friday.
The vehicle was originally granted after an inquiry on June 22, but the grant had been held in abeyance because of information laid before the Authority by one of the objectors, British Road Services (Meat Haulage) Ltd., which cast doubt upon the evidence given in support of the application.
In letters to the Licensing Authority, B.R.S. (Meat Haulage) Ltd. claimed that Mr. W. J. I. Wood—an employee of Centro Products Ltd., whose meat k carried by Eldridge Haulage—had given evidence without his company's permission and instructions.
Mr. P. Bridge, of B.R.S., produced two letters during Friday's hearing--one written by B.R.S. to Centro, and a reply from a director, which said that Mr. Wood had not their permission to give evidence and had been instructed not to.
For Eldridge Haulage, Mr. M. H. Jackson-Lipkin said that his solicitors had written to Mr. Wood about the matter. He had replied that while it was true that he had not had his company's authority, nothing he had said in evidence in any way deviated from the truth.
" I did so because 1 thought refrigerated transport was vital in the carrying of this beef ", the 'letter said.
A director of Eldridge Haulage. Mr. W. W. R. Eldridge, said he did not know that Mr. Wood had no authority to give evidence and he had had no reason for suspecting it. His business dealings with Centro were through Mr. Wood and he thought he was the controller of the company.
Giving his 4ecision, Mr. Macdonald said that Mr. Wood should not have been at the inquiry and he rejected his evidence becaus% it was not supported by any other evidence.
But, as his decision in granting the v.hiele had not been based on any evidence given by Mr. Wood • relating to B.R.S., the grant stood, said the deputy Authority.
Big Car Transporter Bid Adjourned AFIER allegations had been made that certain car transporter operators had not adhered to undertakings given previously as to the kind of cars they would carry, the Metropolitan Licensing Authority, Mr. D. 1, R. Muir, last Friday adjourned an application by Anglo Scottish Car Deliveries Ltd., and provisionally reserved two days for the hearing.
Anglo Scottish are applying for a new B licence authorizing 10 car transporters and trailers to carry fully assembled motcy vehicles, any distance.