East Kent Gains Extra £110,000: Salford Grant Will Not Stop Loss
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LAST week, the South Eastern Licensing Authority granted East Kent Road Car Co., Ltd., permission to advance charges on all its services with effect from October 27. The new fares will augment the concern's revenue by £110,000 a year. Giving decision, the Licensing Authority said that the company should be in a position by January 15 next, to submit cases in which it thought a reduction of some of the lower fares could be made.
Single fares between 21d. and 51d. will now go up by a d.,• from 6d. to 2s. 5d., by id., from 2s. 6d. up, by 2d., whilst return fares go up by I d. to 4d. Season tickets will also advance by 1012 per cent.
22 Objectors Kent County Council and 21 local authorities objected to the application. Fares were last increased in July, 1951, and an application for a second increase in January this year was refused. The newly authorized charges are stated to be 30-33 per cent, above the pre-war level.
The additional revenue estimated to derive from the fares proposed would not be sufficient to cover increased costs, it was stated. The application has been based on additional costs amounting to £134.000. Since then, a new wage award had added another £50.000 a year to the concern's costs. It was stated that only two vehicles had been purchased last year, but 85, costing £350.000, were on order for next year.
Representing the objectors. Mr. H. I. Willis declared that the company was asking for substantially more than was justified. Supporting this view, Mr. S. W. Hill, considered that the applicant had overstated the deterioration of its position by £50,000460,000.
Increases of Id. to 14.d.
Salford Corporation's application for increased fares, to produce an extra £180,000 in a full year, has been granted, with two exceptions, by the North Western Licensing Authority. The new fares, which will be Id. to lid. higher than the previous rates on existing stages, will operate as from Sunday. The Licensing Authority has refused to allow the corporation the full increase sought on two works services.
This decision does not solve the undertaking's financial problems, because it has been losing money at' the rate of £178,000 a year since April I last. The increased charges will provide only an extra £90,000 in the current year. Over and above the existing loss. there will be a further deficit of £15,000 in the current year, because of the new increase in wages, which will cost £28,250 in a full year.
At Glasgow last week, Edinburgh Corporation presented its case to the Scottish Licensing Authority for permission to increase to 6d. the earlymorning return fares on trams and buses. This proposal was in addition to the application heard on September 15. and on which decision is still awaited.
ts2 The new application had been made because of the wage increase granted since the last hearing. This would cost Edinburgh over £70,000 a year.
Although recently it seemed that costs and revenue had reached a state of balance, Wolverhampton Corporation will now have to apply again for fares advances. The recent wage award will cost the undertaking £32,500 in a full year, and since the last application for increases was made in June, 1951, costs have risen by £106,000 a year.
It is now proposed to apply for a 2d. minimum single fare, a 4d. workmen's minimum return fare and the abolition of Id. stages in fares over 5d.
SERVICE NOT TO BOOST HOTEL HEN Northern Roadways, Ltd., applied to the Scottish Licensing Authority to run nine-day tours from Glasgow and Edinburgh to Ramsgate at a proposed charge of £23 2s., counsel for the objectors, including the Railway Executive, Scottish Omnibuses, Ltd., the Western S.M.T. Co., Ltd., Scout Motor Services, Ltd., Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., and Lowland Motors, asked whether it were true that two directors of the applicant company had obtained an interest in a Ramsgate hotel, and that the application was simply designed to make their investments a paying proposition.
This was denied. Mr. John Crawford, general manager of Northern Roadways, Ltd., said that he would be surprised to learn that there was aa organization operating similar tours for £9 14s.