Mendip tippers want rates rise
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rr HE Mendip Tipper Operators' Commit tee has asked local quarry managers to consider paying rate increases of 2+ per cent with effect from January 1 for all business other than county council deliveries and fixed price contracts; with a further 2+ per cent increase from April 1.
The committee suggests that rates paid for county council work should be increased by 5 per cent from April I, and quarry managers are urged to take this proposed increase into consideration when submitting tenders for contracts for work within the period April 1967 to April 1968.
The committee has offered to meet quarry managers as a whole to discuss rate increases but, if preferred, the committee, or individual members, would be willing to meet any particular quarry management.
Meanwhile, there is a strong possibility that the quarry rates issue will once again be thrashed out before the Western Licensing Authority, Mr. J. R. C. Samuel-Gibbon.
Several Mendip quarry operators are concerned at the number of Contract A licence grants made in chambers—at one quarry about 30 such licences are said to have been issued. Established A and B licensed hauliers fear that if this continues they will be squeezed out of quarry work altogether.
I understand that a group of operators intend to challenge the quarry concerned at a public inquiry to determine a B-licence variation bid. If, as I anticipate, operating costs and margins with plated tipper vehicles are fully ventilated at the hearing, the Western LA's , decision will provide a useful guide. J.D.