Operating centre is )ssence of licence
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IMPORTANCE of specifying the true operating centre in pplication for an operator's licence is shown in a reserved ision of the East Midland Licensing Authority, C. M. ridan.
refusing an application by V. Dines and Company, the said the company had held previous licences with an rating centre at Merton, ..ster. By letter dated June 1978, a change of address Berolyn Garage, Wendley, was notified where vehicles had been moved maintenance purposes.
he present application e that address and was iosed by Cherwell District ancil on the ground that it s not suitable for the pur3e. The applicant then ified the LA that due to a real error the operating itre had been wrongly ted and should read Mer although vehicle mainte nance and the administration would be at Wendlebury.
The Council persisted in its objection, claiming that the operating centre was not in fact at Merton.
The LA said the declared operating centre was the essence of an application and it must be refused if he was not satisfied that the place specified was in fact an operating centre for the purposes of the Act — that is, the place from which an operator gives the orders which govern the manner in which goods are to be carried by his vehicles on road. (Transport Tribunal: Road Haulage Association versus Cash and McCall).
He was in no doubt that the applicant company's operating centre, wherever it might be located, was no longer at Merton, as the administration was being carried out at Wendlebury.
R. G. Court, a director and the person specified as fulltime transport manager, was at Wendlebury while the man in charge at Merton operated under his instruction. Merton was simply a place where vehicles went to refuel and for drivers to receive orders for individual operations. They did not originate at Merton and consequently it was not the operating centre. The application based upon an operating centre at Merton would be refused.
The LA said he made no formal findings as to the actual location of the operating centre.