LICENSING CASEBOOK
Page 46
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By John Darker, AMBIM
Mr. Robson's ordeal could so easily be ended
EN Mr. H. E. Robson, chairman of the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners, chided )IVIIVIIr. A. J. F. Wrottesley, British Railways' redoubtable advocate, for his extraordinarily detailed cross-examination of Yelloway's General Manager (Mr. H. Allen) at Leeds recently, at the resumed hearing of the "Torbay Pool" bid, the atmosphere in court perceptibly lightened. In fairness to Mr. Wrottesley, who was batting to his brief with the dourness once shown by Trevor Bailey in taking 7 hours to score 68 runs, I suspect that Mr. Robson's comment was really directed at the whole case.
The advocate's table groaned beneath the weight of timetables, schedules, and explanatory memoranda galore. Would the case ever end? There seemed no reason why it should.
Starting last December and now ad journed until June, and with all the added complications of the pending High Court application by the objectors (for an order of prohibition to determine whether the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners should be compelled to disclose particulars supplied to the traffic court by the applicants for the respective express licences) still to be determined, a good many more long, dull furrows must be ploughed before a conclusion is reached.
It is already clear that Norman Tilsley's Casebook comment (COMMERCIAL MOTOR, December 31) was abundantly justified; the implications of the bid are indeed farreaching; and much more will be revealed before the case ends.
But need it have happened at all?
What discussions took place between the applicants and the objectors before this wretched marathon was organized? Is the public interest really served by these protracted and costly legal battles which may be inconclusive, if an appeal is lodged, for many long months? How many north country folk have been messed about in planning coach travel to the South and West this summer? In brief, is not the expanding market more than sufficient to employ the big boys as well as the small boys for the foreseeable future?
I may be quite wrong in my view that the public at large deserve the best travel facilities that the coach industry can provide immediately the facilities can be organized. Such tedious and protracted battles as that now in progress—if progress is the right word— may ultimately benefit some of the operators involved but a speedier compromise solution now would save a deal of trouble.
Road transport licensing at this rate may end up in the Restrictive Practices Court!