Minister Orders Re-hearing of Fare Application
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KAUSE he is nol satisfied with the course that the original hearing k, the Minister of Transport has 1 the Northern Licensing Authority re-hear an application by United lomo bile Services, Ltd., to charge her fares on stage services between vcastle upon Tyne and High Spen Blaydon and High Spen.
'his is the result of an appeal by ydon Urban District Council against Authority's decision to permit the ipany to raise rates on their vcastle-High Spen service.
a the hearing of the application, the many referred in general terms to fact that they had agreed to make am' concessions in cases where the LI authorities concerned had been to convince them that hardship or maly would result if the proposals
2 approved as they stood.
nless the Authority so wished, they not desire to complicate the hearing going into all the details, but iming the application would be ited, they were preparing a coiniensive schedule embodying the cessions.
s the service with which he was concerned was one of these, and would not, therefore, be discussed at the hearing, the representative of .Blaydon Council was given leave by the Authority to retire.
The Authority's reserved decision stated that the .applicants appeared to have come to agreements with some local authorities that any grant affecting their districts would not apply.
"No explanation for such privileges is given," the decision went on, "and we assume that it -was to placate the objectors. If there be any justification for any increase in a particular range of fares at all, any grant made must apply equally to all routes."
In the Minister's view, the hearing was unsatisfactory because the course which the proceedings took was such as to mislead the council's representative into retiring in the belief that the applicants and the Authority had conceded their point. Otherwise, he would no doubt have raised the council's objection.
At the request of the council, and with the agreement of U.A.S., the appeal was dealt with on the basis of written statements.