Hayton Appe al Fails, Too
Page 34
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THE Tribunal also rejected an appeal by Alexander Hayton against the refusal of the Scottish Licensing Authority to grant the conversion of two Contract A vehicles to normal A. The appellant carried on business with four vehicles on normal A and three vehicles on Contract A, under two Contract A
• licences, for Mrs. McAllister and Sons whose main business was potatoes.
The single Contract A vehicle was used mainly for collection and delivery work and it was proposed to keep this on Contract A. The two other Contract A vehicles would be transferred to normal A but would operate for McAllister for 90 per cent of their time on long-distance work.
From the evidence, the Tribunal stated, the initiative for the change came from Hayton. The customer was prepared to agree but, had no approach been made, the customer would have carried on under Contract A. It had been submitted to the Tribunal that in the circumstances in which the bodies agreed to terminate the agreement no prima facie case had been made out. That put the matter on too narrow a basis. McAllister required transport and were not obliged to go on obtaining facilities under contract. They were entitled to have their case for having their goods carried considered on its merits. A prima fade case had been made out.
It had been submitted that this need was not a proper case for a Contract A licence because potato traffic flowed for only 131 months, which was less than "a continuous period of not less than one year ". The Tribunal considered this unsound. Al! that was required was that vehicles, if used at all, be used exclusively for the purpose of the contract. Were an A licence granted it would release some 30 per cent of time of two vehicles onto the transport market. The comment of Lord Justice Devlin in the Arnold Transport case applied. McAllister had all the facilities they wanted and in the form they wanted and it would not be right to throw the extra capacity on the market, said the Tribunal.