Tribunal remits new building case
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A CASE in which an operator blamed the effort he was spending on building a new vehicle workshop for the condition his vehicles has been remitted to the Scottish Licensing Authority for further consideration by the Transport Tribunal.
The operator, George Sutherland, trading as Express Deliveries, had five prohibition notices issued against vehicles in March of last year. At a subsequent inspection it was found that records were incomplete and contained records covering a period after the date of inspection. Following this a public inquiry was held at which the LA curtailed the licence.
In a written decision the Tribunal says that appellant's reason for the situation, given personally to the LA, was that his energies had been devoted to the building of new premises for the vehiCles. The Tribunal took the view that these energies were thus in directly devoted to maintenance of the fleet. At the Tribunal various mitigating circumstances not put to the LA were explained by a solicitor for the appellant.
In view of these factors, the Tribunal says in its decision, the LA may have erred in principle in treating the appellant as if he was neglecting the maintenance of his vehicles altogether. Although the operator should have been maintaining the vehicles at the same time as putting up the new building, lit was unfortunate, the decision says, that just at a time when the fruits of the operator's efforts should have been seen his licence was curtailed. Accordingly, "but with some hesitation" the Tribunal remitted the case to the LA for further consideration with the instruction that details of new maintenance arrangements—including a contract with the Freight Transport Association—should be drawn to the LA's attention.