TC Bell will clean up North-West
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North Western Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell has said that the NorthWest needs cleaning up and she is the one to do it.
Her comments came when Garston, Liverpool-based James Kirkby, who held a licence for 10 vehicles and 20 trailers, appeared before her at a St Helens disciplinary inquiry.
Vehicle examiner Eric Bober said that he examined four vehicles and four trailers during a maintenance investigation in February, issuing one delayed prohibition and six defect notices.
There were 11 vehicles and 20 trailers in possession. The ageing fleet included trailers up to 20 years old. The investigation had been prompted by the issue of 13 immediate and 15 delayed prohibitions since September 1995: 18 had been issued since a warning letter in September 1896, including 12 prohibitions on trailers in use.
There was a long history of vehicles and trailers in service being issued with prohibitions at roadside checks, he added. The firm had moved out of its authorised operating centre.
Bober agreed that the new premises were a marked improvement over the authorised site and that the vehicles he had seen had been prepared to a high standard.
Kirkby's son Gary said the firm was currently operating nine vehicles and was going through a refurbishment programme. Problems had arisen when they had employed maintenance staff instead of doing it themselves.
The company had employed four fleet engineers over the past few years, he added, because they had to have high standards to win lucrative contracts.
James Kirkby said they had suffered vandalism problems at the previous premises; the office was burnt down destroying a lot of records. He believed the maintenance programme had failed because of this vandalism.
He told the TC that he was now 68 years old and intended to take more of a back seat—the business would be run by his son. They had a new fleet engineer and a consultant engineer would come in and do VI-style spot checks.
The TC was told that the business had previously been the victim of poor quality staff and a badly located operating centre.
After she had commented that the licence was nearing its end because of its history, Gary Kirkby said he wanted to seek a licence in his own name.
Revoking the licence with effect from the end of September, the TC said that would give James and Gary Kirkby time to apply for a licence injoint names.
She could not ignore 30 prohibitions in five years, a series of convictions and the move of operating centre without notification.