Eastern LA wins High Court tussle
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• Mr Robert Frederick Callaway, of Defoe Road, Ipswich, must take a new driving test if he wants to drive heavy goods vehicles, three High Court judges decided last Friday.
The court quashed a decision of Ipswich County Borough magistrates on January 14 directing the Licensing Authority for the Eastern traffic area to grant Mr Callaway a licence.
Mr Gordon Slynn, for the DoE, whose application to challenge the magistrates' order was granted in February (CM February 12), said that the Road Traffic regulations provided that the Licensing Authority shall not issue a heavy goods vehicle driver's licence unless the applicant had passed a test or had held such a licence during the preceding 10 years, or had been driving heavy goods vehicles for a total of six months during the year ended February 1, 1970.
Mr Callaway had not passed a test, had not held an appropriate licence, and had been driving for only four and a half months during the relevant period.
The Licensing Authority therefore had no power to grant him a licence. But Mr Callaway appealed to the magistrates as "an aggrieved or dissatisfied person," and they allowed his appeal in the belief that they had wider powerS of discretion than the Licensing Authority.
Lord Widgery, the Lord Chief Justice, sitting in the Queen's Bench Divisional Court with Mr Justice Ashworth and Mr Justice Willis, said he did not think the Road Traffic Acts allowed magistrates to order a Licensing Authority to do something outside its powers.
"This would enable the magistrates to drive a coach and four through the whole licensing system for heavy goods vehicles, and I do not think that Parliament intended magistrates to have this power," said Lord Widgery.