• Bullus and Co (Dyers) Ltd, of Leeds, successfully appealed
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at the Transport Tribunal on Wednesday against the two Weeks' suspension of the firm's operator's licence, imposed by Maj-Gen. Sir John Potter, Yorkshire Licensing Authority.
Mr K. D. Wigin, for the appellants, said the Bullus operator's licence was for two vehicles and at the time of the original hearing only one vehicle was being operated. Deficiencies in the standard of vehicle maintenance were relatively minor and the most serious item related to a worn tyre. This tyre, said counsel, was not bald, but a strip of tread two inches wide continuing for about a quarter of the tyre's circumference, was worn. There had been a £10 fine imposed by the Leeds magistrates for the tyre offence.
Mr Wigin said the tyre had been looked at shortly before the vehicle inspection and it had been considered safe until the end of the month, when the vehicle was due to be replaced.
The appeal was based on the excessive cost of hiring replacement vehicles, estimated at £22 per vehicle per day. Eleven days hiring, said counsel, would cost his clients £250 per vehicle — and the company had already been fined £10 for the prime cause of the operator's licence suspension. In addition, substantial legal costs had been incurred. The Yorkshire LA had said, in giving his decision, that the company needed a "short, sharp shock". The Tribunal could rest assured, said Mr Wigin, that the young man in charge of the company was fully conscious of the need from now on for first-class maintenance.
Giving judgment, the president, Mr G. D. Squibb, said there was nothing wrong in principle with the two weeks' suspension but bearing in mind that at the time of the check only one vehicle was being operated, the Tribunal felt the penalty was unduly severe. It would accordingly be reduced to a curtailment of the licence by one vehicle for two weeks, with effect from December 1 1972.