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Although the Road Haulage Association has had only limited success in its pilot scheme for objecting to operators' licence applicants with unsatisfactory operating centres, the extent of that success should be enough to encourage the Association to opt for a nationwide extension of the scheme. In matters of this sort there is almost always a• snowball effect, and once the RHA showed it really meant business there would be a tightening up of standards, all round. Who knows, perhaps the Association might even be joined by other statutory objectors in its crusade to block the entry of ill-prepared newcomers.
As our report in this issue shows, 75 objections have been made in the experimental North Western scheme, Of the 23 that went to public inquiry, nine objections were successful and 14 failed in whole or in part. That cannot be regarded as a bad percentage, and if the 0-licence application form could be clarified to avoid misunderstandings which led the RHA to initiate 37 unnecessary objections, money and effort could be directed more efficiently on to genuine targets. While "unsuitable premises" is not the only ground on which objections can be laid, it is the easiest to establish and pursue, and it is the only basis on which the Association is likely to find ready support from local authorities—who also have statutory objection rights. The building up of liaison between RHA areas, local authorities and the police could result in a proper and fruitful use of this new basis of objection, the inclusion of which in the 1974 Act was .largely at the instigation of the RHA.