All or Nothing
Page 65
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CEVERAL, weeks ago in our regular 1.-) weekly feature "Expansion Treads in Haulage" I mentioned that in future the Northern area " Applications and Decisions " would list, in the Public Inquiry section, all objectors to an application, and at the recent Road Haulage Association Conference in Brighton, one of the speakers—Mr. R. N. Ingram—in a debate on whether there should be introduced a national licensing scheme, applauded the Northern Licensing Authority's decision to do this to prevent indiscriminate objections.
I understand that this practice is to be discontinued and that now, in future, no objectors' names will be listed whatsoever. This is purely, I EMI informed, a matter of economy in printing costs.
The reason for publishing all the
names of objectors became necessary when it was found that a certain group of hauliers—members of the R.H.A., I understand—were forming themselves into an objecting "school " gathering support to enable them to offer mammoth opposition to anyone trying to increase the number of vehicles in the area. The majority of these hullscriminate objectors operate tippers and, I understand, they are even lodging objections against applicants for furniture vans, etc.
It is a great pity that the names of all objectors are not to be shown, though 1 am glad that the old method, of just listing one or two objectors by name, and then adding "and thirteen objectors," or whatever the number may be, is not being used. It Is a question of all, or nothing at all.