Can B-Licence Conditions be Varied ?
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THAT once a B-licence holder has I obtained certain conditions on his licence, they may not be varied, except in the case of failure to observe them, was a submission made to Sir William Hart, Yorkshire Deputy Licensing Authority, at Wakefield, last week.
This was the first hearing in the Yorkshire Area of objections to applications for the renewal of B licences without modification. The railway companies sought reductions in various radii of operation in respect of certain classes of goods carried by B-licence holders.
Mr, S. E. Pitts, for members of the Commercial Motor Users Association, raised the question of what could be taken into account in attaching conditions to a B licence, and contended that the railways had no right to object to the renewal of the licences in question. He submitted that the Licensing Authority must grant the applications.
Sir William Hart: " You are working up to the argument that once a licensee has obtained his B-licence conditions they cannot be taken away? "
Mr. Pitts: " They can be if the licensee does not carry out his conditions."
Sir William Hart: " It would be futile for me to sit here and listen to objections if all the time I have not the right to adjudicate upon them."
Mr. H. F. R. Sturge, for the railway companies, submitted that Mr. Pitts's interpretation of the statute was wrong.
Mr. F. G. Bibbings, foz. members of the Yorkshire Stage Carriage Operators' Association (goods section), said that the railway objections were of the "perpetual-motion" variety. Obviously, by a process of annual nibbling, they hoped to put B-licence holders into a kind of strait-jacket, which would make it not an economic proposition for such operators to continue haulage.
In the cases which were subsequently heard, modifications of radii were made in a number of instances.