Three vie for bankrupt's traffic
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• Three applicants, Clark's Coaches of Easingwold, Hutchinson Bros. of Husthwaite and E. and G. Brown of Helperby applied for variations and new licences in Leeds this week before the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners to accommodate passengers formerly carried by A. E. Pooley trading as Carlton Coaches of Carlton Husthwaite in the North Riding.
Mr. and Mrs, Pooley filed a petition of bankruptcy on September 17, 1968 having ceased trading on July 31. A purchase agreement with Clark's Coaches was entered into for the goodwill of stage carriage and excursion services.
Mr. K. Clark, of Clark's Coaches, said that on October 10, 1968 he had obtained a short-term licence to continue operating the stage services to Thirsk, on Mondays from Husthwaite and on Saturdays from Easingwold, serving adjacent villages. On the former he averaged weekly 120 single fares on the four journeys and on the latter about 100 on the seven runs. He had increased the fares and the services were now paying.
Hutchinson applied for an express service licence between Ampleforth and York serving. similar intermediate villages on Thursdays but stated it was not intended to convey passengers only between Easingwold and York. This, too, had been continued under short-term and although it was losing money it was a service to the villagers he had served since the war, said Mr. L. Hutchinson, a partner in the business. The commissioners granted these applications.
Both companies were applying for new excursion licences and objecting to each others' applications. Also objecting was Browns, who in addition sought another picking-up point to serve Easingwold.
Mr. Clark, who sought 23 tours from two departure points, said that during the past year he had been helping Mr. Pooley and felt the reason for the business failure was that another operator had been picking up passengers without a licence. Mr. Pooley said this practice had increased considerably since 1966. In answer to Mr. J. E. Hanson, for Hutchinson, he denied that his buses had failed to turn up or that he had arrived with a car when 12 people were waiting to travel.
Loss of work, school and duplicate contracts as well as the alleged unlicensed operations had been given to the bankruptcy court as reasons for the failure, said Mr. J. Pykett, officer of York Official Receiver. The accounts showed that Carlton Coaches had made a net profit of £2,000 before drawings were made by the partners in the period August 1966 to July 1968 but it was not possible to say how much was attributable to the excursion business, he said.
Clark's was granted six excursions commencing from Easingwold and withdrew its application for a further 14 from Carlton Husthwaite. However. Hutchinson's were granted 11 tours starting from this village with three additional picking-up points and with the proviso that the Leeds excursion would be limited for football, shopping, cinemas, and theatres. Browns will also now be able to pick up in Easingwold. All three operators, together with E. Hope and Sons who is also based in this area, have agreed that they will not run simultaneous excursions.