Pool Applicants Not a Legal Partnership
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AR. H. E. ROBSON, the new chairman 1V-1 of the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners had what he termed his "Baptism of Fire" at the end of the four-hour hearing of a case which was listed for five days throughout this week.
At the end of this period Mr. F. D. Walker, on behalf of the applicants Tor Bay Pool Partners, agreed to withdraw the application for a big extension of express coach services from Yorkshire to the West of England after Mr. Robson had ruled for the objectors that the applicants did not constitute a legal partnership.
Tor Bay Pool Partners were seeking permission to run a through express service from Keighley, Yorkshire, to Paignton, Devon, on Friday night and to run buses to Chentenham to connect with services of Associated Motorways. Feeder coach services from other West Riding cities were also requested.
Wallace Arnold Tours Ltd., of Leeds, and their subsidiary J. W_ Kitchin and Sons, Leeds, joined members of the Yorkshire Pool in the application with the 10 members of Associated Motorways; Yelloway Motor Services, Rochdale, and Hebble Motor Services.
The objectors on Monday were Sheffield United Tours Ltd., Hansons Buses Ltd. of Huddersfield; C G. Littlewood Ltd., Sheffield, and British Railways. Two other objectors, Gillards Tours Ltd., of Normanton, and Heaps Tours Ltd., of Leeds, had withdrawn.
For the proposed Pool Mr. Walker had contended that there were substantial shortcomings in express services to the West of England from the West Riding of Yorkshire and that no overall co-ordinating plan had ever emerged. He claimed that the Lancashire side of the Pennines in the Yelloway catchrnent area was served about eight times better.
Mr. M. H. Jackson-Lipkin, for Littlewood and Hansons, said the question had arisen as to whether the groups of companies making the application did in fact constitute a "legal partnership ".
Mr. Robson adjourned the hearing for a short time before announcing that the commissioners had "reluctantly, in view of the expense, decided to uphold the objection ".
It had been expected that documents would be produced to validate the application but this had not been done.
A member of the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners' staff in Leeds told The Commercial Motor on Tuesday that, in law, documentary evidence of all pooling agreements between operators must be supplied in detail, showing working arrangements, to the Traffic Commissioners at the time of the application.
A number of operators may feel inclined to check on the "heads of agreement" in regard to their various pooling operations, but the present case does not, so far as is known, affect the validity of other pools.