Four vehicles reduced to one for Leeds farmer
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• "I suppose the vehicle is in use among the natives in Ponga-Ponga now", the Yorkshire Area LA, Maj-Gen Sir John Potter, said at Leeds on Friday after being told by a 'farmer — the owner of three farms in the district — that he had sold one of the vehicles he owned which had had a GV9 placed on it last year and that it had gone abroad.
Mr Edmond Makin, of Stainton Grange Farm, Garforth, nr Leeds, admitted that the vehicles, which were used on his farm for taking produce to market and the conveyance of his employees, were found to have defects when they were seen by a vehicle examiner and were given prohibition notices. In the case of one vehicle, a Bedford van, Mr P. Walsh, a vehicle examiner, told the LA that the defects were of long standing. In addition, no records were kept of the vehicles. Although they had apparently been presented to a local garage on three occasions there was no evidence of any repair or maintenance work being carried out. The Bedford van among other things showed a basic lack of lubrication. Mr Walsh said he considered the maintenance staff inadequate and that Mr Makin was over committed. A GV9 issued in respect of one vehicle last November had still not been removed.
Mr Makin told the court that he had three farms to run and none of his colleagues was a Mechanic. He had arranged with a local garage to look after the vehicles but they had always been too busy so he had made repairs and carried out three-monthly inspections himself. He admitted that any records kept were completely inadequate.
Curtailing his licence by three vehicles to leave him with one vehicle, Maj-Gen Potter told Mr Makin that even if he moved produce only a short distance from his farm it was essential that the vehicles used be in order. "It is an unfortunatefact of life that people who enter into undertakings and sign papers promising to do certain things, especially those who do not have a knowledge of transport, fail to read or understand or often even try to carry them out. It is only at a late stage, as in your own case, that they understand what it means."
Maj-Gen Potter told Makin he could apply to the court again after three months if he required further vehicles when a further inspection would be carried out.