Scarborough Council faces MoT check
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• North Eastern Licensing Authority Frederick Whalley has cut the authorisation on the licence held by Scarborough Borough Council by five vehicles, and has refused to add the council's refuse vehicles and road sweepers to its 0-licence until all its vehicles have been through a fresh MoT test.
The duration of the licence has also been cut, so that it now expires at the end of the year.
The council had applied to add 29 vehicles to its 15-vehicle licence to cover its refuse and road sweeping vehicles which became subject to 0-licensing in April.
Dip vehicle examiner Brian Hipkiss told a Leeds public inquiry that he had inspected 11 vehicles in March, issuing three immediate prohibitions, four delayed prohibitions and 10 defect notices. The prohibited vehicles were almost all refuse vehicles. Inspection records showed that some tippers were only examined once a year.
Whalley said that it was of very great concern that a local authority, with all its resources and management expertise, should find itself in such a situation. There was no doubt that the public had been placed at risk by the condition of some of the refuse vehicles.
He found it very difficult to find any excuse for what had been a lamentable lack of management control.