Lost appeal
Page 18
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AN APPEAL before the Transport Tribunal by G&D Services that the company should be granted an 0 licence was dismissed when the Tribunal agreed with the Western Licensing Authority the appellants were unfit to hold a licence.
The company had applied to the LA for renewal of an existing 0 licence earlier this year.
When the LA, Maj-Gen Sir John Potter reviewed the application, he had to take into account an appearance by the company at Tewkesbury magistrates' court on May 24, 1977.
Giving his decision, the chairman of the Tewkesbury magistrates said of G&D Services that the offences it had committed were due to "sheer incompetence."
He added: "These are serious cases, regulations are necessary to maintain standards so that the public is safeguarded against drivers being fatigued and vehicles are safely maintained."
The Tribunal president said that because the magistrates believed the offences were committed through "sheer incompetence," it automatically followed that "anybody who is incompetent to run a haulier's business is not a fit person to hold an operator's ticence."
With further evidence of the way the owners ran their business before the LA, the Tribunal president added: "It seems to us that not only was the Licensing Authority fully justified in saying that he was not satisfied that the appellants were fit persons to hold a licence, but that if he had come to any contrary conclusion he would have been flying in the face of the evidence before him."