Transport Tribunal cuts condition
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The Transport Tribunal has removed a condition from the licence held by St Austell-based Leonard Gale which prevented him from basing trailers at one of his operating centres.
In 1991 Gale, who trades as Bosithow Farm Mushrooms, was granted authority to base two 7.5-tonners at Bosithow Farm. In 1998 he applied to increase the permitted weight of the vehicles to 25 tonnes. That application was opposed by Restormel Borough Council and a number of local residents.
Western Traffic Commissioner Christopher Heaps granted the application but imposed environmental conditions, including a ban on trailers. Gale was invited to make representations but was advised that the restriction only covered trailers large enough to be authorised on his licence.
Following complaints from residents, Gale was called to a public inquiry to explain why two trailers were occasionally kept at the site. He explained that as they were small trailers he did not think they were covered by the restrictions.
The TC took no action but ruled that it was a breach of the condition to use or keep trailers of any size at Bosithow Farm.
When he appeared before the Tribunal, Gale explained that he wanted to use a small trailer towed by a Land Rover to deliver compost to sites inaccessible to his 25-tonners. The Tribunal said that in effect Gale was seeking leave to appeal against the "no-trailer" condition imposed in 1998. Such an appeal was bound to succeed because a licence condition could only refer to authorised vehicles.
The Tribunal decided to delete the condition from the licence and refer the matter back to the TC so he could gve it further consideration.
The Tribunal commented that if the TC was planning to impose licence conditions he was bound to consider representations about the effect of those conditions on the operator's business. No such statutory protection was given to undertakings.
However, the TC should be cautious about requiring undertakings if he was told that such undertakings would affect the business enough to cancel out any benefits of the application. Also, an undertaking, like a condition, should be based on a conclusion that the proposed operating centre would cause adverse environmental effects and that the proposed undertaking would minimise those effects.