Council wins dereg appeal
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Highland Scottish Omnibuses Ltd
"'The Secretary of State for Transport has decided that Highland Regional Council was right in maintaining that the grant of applications for three road service licences by Highland Scottish Omnibuses Ltd would have disrupted arrangements made by the council for a satisfactory transition to deregulation. Accordingly he has allowed the councils appeal against the decision of the Scottish Traffic Commissioner to grant the services.
In a letter dated October 22 the minister has thus reversed the Commissioners decision (deregulation day was October 26).
The grounds of the council's appeal were that the Commissioners decision did not take sufficient account of the requirement in the Transport Act 1985 (Schedule 6, Clause 2) or adequate weight to the guidance issued in the joint circular from the Secretary of State for Transport and the Secretary of State for Scotland. In particular, the council quoted paragraph 163 of the circular, which states: The further three-month period from October 26, 1986, to January 25, 198Z of restrictions on changes is designed to provide a period of stability following the abolition of road service licensing.
At the inquiry on July 30, said the council in its appeal, the Commissioner had allowed lengthy cross-examination on council transport policy regarding who had been consulted and even the exact dates. The issue was not the wisdom or otherwise of the council's policy (let alone the dates of consultations) but whether granting the applications would disrupt arrangements made for a satisfactory transition to deregulation, The appellant's grounds of appeal were that the Commissioner had regard to Section 31 of the Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981 as amended. One of the purposes of the crossexamination was to establish if there had been consultation on services put out by appellant for tender which would and could, with modifications, have been provided by the respondents without subsidy, In his decision, the minister said that the salient facts were that Highland Scottish Omnibuses decided not to register certain services without subsidy after October 26; the council decided that the services should be retained with the assistance of subsidy and went out to tender as required by the 1985 Act.
Highland Scottish Omnibuses tendered for the services, but other operators submitted lower bids which were subsequently accepted by the council. Highland Scottish Omnibuses applied for road service licences to run similar services without subsidy which would compete with the tendered services, in the knowledge that these services could be registered under Case B to continue to operate after October 26. The minister thought the council was correct in maintaining that the grant of the applications would disrupt arrangements for transition to deregulation.