"Aldershot Reserves Too Big": Warning by Licensing Authorities
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AT a two-day joint hearing by the Metropolitan and South-eastern Licensing Authorities, at Guildford, last week, Aldershot and D trict Traction Co.„ Ltd., received pe mission to increase by id. all fares p to 5id. Fares over 6d. are to be i creased by Id., but the Licensing Authorities refused to permit the wit drawal of return fares between Is. 4d. and 2s.
The, Yellow Bus Co. was Igo granted increases on the same scale Surrey County Council and 17 local authorities were objectors to the application and criticisms were made of the size of the concern's reserves. In reply, Mr. P. N. Gray, general manager of Aldershot and District, stated that the assets of the company were £1.158,542. General reserves were £600,000, of which £200,000 had been accumulated. during the past three years. Last year the company paid a 20 per cent. dividend, .vith a 71 per cent. bonus.
£50.000 for Reserve?
For the objectors it was maintained that the company should have obtained additional capital years ago. Estimates were produced which, it was claimed, would allow the company a fair working margin. if £50,000 were taken for reserve in each of the next two years. It was unfair, in view of the large reserves of the company, to ask the travelling public to bear the whole burden of increasing operating costs, the objectors argued.
For the company it was shown that operating costs had increased by £110.000 last year, whilst the number of passengers carried in the year ended February, 1951, was 1.147,821 fewer than in the nrevious year.
Giving decision, Lt.-Col. T. G. Tucker, South-eastern Licensing Authority,. said that the increases granted would, according to the company's estimates. bring in £16,000 less than was asked for. If the excess of receipts over expenditure were not as great as it would have liked, the company must decide from what source it would find the money to make up the difference.
Brig. Dowse, Metropolitan Authority, said that whilst the distribution of the balance after all necessary charges for working was a matter for the directors, in future allocations they should have regard to the possibility of obtaining some . contribution from interests other than the fare-paying public in the event of a deficit.
"VERY DISAPPOINTING YEAR" FOR L.U.T.
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I HAVE to deal with a very disappointing year," said Mr. E. H. Edwardes, 0.B.E.. chairman of Lancashire United Transport, Ltd., at the
company's annual meeting, last week.•Receipts of the combined undertaking had dropped for the first time in its history. They were lower by £36,000 than in the previous year. The number of passengers carried had declined by 1.623.000 and the mileage by 381.000. Mr. Edwardes attributed this result to deterioration in snending power and bad weather. The company's profit had fallen by £62.000.
The increase of 414 a gallon in the fuel tax would cost some £36,000 in the present year.
The comnany had had to apply for increased fares. The present charges were the same as when the undertaking began in 1920.
R.H.E. FINED 1120 TINES amounting to £120, plus I £15 15s. costs, were imposed on the Road Haulage Executive at Chelmsford, last week, for allegedly permitting 12 drivers to work excessive hours. The men were discharged absolutely.