Bird's Eye View
Page 55
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looked more like a Star Chamber than a public tquiry." This was the observation made by Hugh ty in the Sunday Citizen last week on the Metro' Licensing Court. Three barristers were present, he and a dozen witnesses—" they were made to look like als in the dock. And all this was about a haulage application for licences to carry liquids, chiefly :tals and oil for its customers ".
application in question was presumably that of Bros., heard before Mr. D. I. R. Muir on Tuesday, -iber 10. Mr. Delargy, quite properly, is concerned the time and money "spent on the staff and premises se traffic courts ". Referring to the committee on vehicle licensing set up by Mr. Marples on July 16, :3! commented, "Every member of it should attend :ourts unannounced. If they aren't as disturbed and xi as 1 was I'll be surprised ", he said.
ends which side of the fence you're on, doesn't it?
lator !
11 acrimony was directed Mr. Marples' way at the Aberal Assembly at Brighton last week. Eric ick opined in a very bitter attack that he• (Mr. es, of course) had proved himself, "quite incapable tppling with the phenomenal increase in motor ". But worse was to come. " Marples," he said, accessory before the fact in the crime of mutilating ation's railway system." (System indeed!) "He s to thrust even more traffic on to the overloaded
etera
prospective Liberal candidate for the coming Luton r-election, Mr. M. Benjamin, no doubt with a weather I a certain impending event, hastily jumped on the vagon and made his contribution. Imagination g riot he declared: "if Marples instead of Moses een responsible for the Exodus from Egypt the in of Israel would still be planning an underpass from :d Sea." (Applause.)
-t Room No. 3
[OUR has it that the offices of the Metropolitan raffle Area are to be "dc-centralized "—probably to London—in the not-too-distant future. For the of those who may not know—the L.A.'s office is, at t, in the heart of London in Soho Square. Sad it would be to leave behind the coffee bars and the erable restaurants, it will be nice to get away from rking meters. My colleague Norman Tilsley informs me, however, that they could never really find headquarters quite so convenient for the Met, office, though. Apparently, unbeknown to many, there is a small grey-painted door at the back of the offices—which leads into a tiny alleyway— which leads into the back of a pub facing on to Charing Cross Road. The lounge is known to regulars in the court as "Court Room No. 3 ". They could never find quite so convenient a situation for the new Met. office.
Progress ?
AM told that the tape recorder experiments have been A completed in the Metropolitan Traffic Court. For many months now tests have been carried out, and I am told, provided that there is enough in the Treasury kitty Court Room No. 2 is to be wired up and the shorthand writers dispensed with.
Now, this is all very well—progress is inexorable and must not be denied. But I have always understood that a shorthand writer is obliged to keep his notes for years (10 years, I believe). Is it the intention of the Ministry to keep tapes for that long, just in case a .transcript should be needed? That would cost an awful lot of public Money! •
Mutual Confidence
I HOPE that not many readers will have missed this weeks' A programme in the Citizen '63 series on B.B.C. television. The citizen on this occasion was Ted Aldridge, chief shop steward at the Avon India Rubber Company's factory at Melksham, Wiltshire. Interesting to take a closer look at one of the much-maligned creatures of present-day industry.
As Ted himself commented, "the fact that both the Avon management and the Transport and General Workers Union decided to subject their working systems to national scrutiny in this programme proves the confidence that both have in their working methods ".
One Redundant Nag !
A CRYPTIC note to a new B licence application which appeared in a recent issue of the Northern As and Ds appealed to me. The application by Mr. P. Chandler of Stockton-on-Tees was for a 21-ton vehicle with a user" building materials and furniture, 25 miles radius". The note—work done with horse and cart will cease if this application is granted. Anyone interested in a second-hand horse?