Different traffic area refuses licence
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• Chepstowbased Woodstock Waste Disposal, whose previous licence in the Western Traffic Area was revoked in February, has been refused a five-vehicle licence based in South Wales.
Paul Carless, appearing for the company at a Cardiff public inquiry, told South Wales LA John Mervyn Pugh that the main reason for the revocation had been the loss of Woddstock's operating centre.
Gwilym Williams, a partner, said the company now had an operating centre at the British Rail Depot, Severn Tunnel Junction near Newport, Gwent; an area of some 200 acres.
Questioned by the LA, Williams conceded that he had continued to use a vehicle following the revocation of the previous licence. He said that following the revocation he had applied to transfer to South Wales. He accepted that he had acted illegally but said that he had to live and was too old to change to another industry.
Carless said that a vehicle had only been used on the road once or twice a week: the vehicles spent most of their time on shunting work at the Severn Valley Junction. He accepted that Williams' repute had been tarnished but argued that, taking account of the length of time in the industry, it had not been tarnished enough to justify refusing the application.
Williams should be given credit for the honest way he had come before the LA, Carless added. He knew he had done wrong and he was asking to be given another chance.
Refusing the application, Mervyn Pugh said he had a duty to protect the public and the industry. There was no room for operators who deliberately broke the law. Williams was not a fit and proper person to hold a licence.