BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 40
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New Secretary I recently visited the new
offices of the Scottish division of the TRTA, at 139 Bath Street, Glasgow, where the new area secretary, Mr. J. Welsh, has recently taken up residence. Having a full-time administration serving the Central, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Fife areas of the Association is quite an innovation— hitherto the work has been undertaken in Edinburgh by Mr. J. 0. Hastie, who recently retired as secretary.
I gather that two things are embarrassing the new secretary—one is lack of office furniture (it's on its way up from London, I was told) and the other the fact that correspondence is still being directed to the former Edinburgh address.
L.B.W. at Albion I gather that two of the three
cricket pitches used by the Albion Motors Cricket Club at Scotstoun, Glasgow are to be tarmacadamed over to be used as additional stocking ground for chassis. According to the local Press, this has caused quite a crisis at Albion Motors and the club secretary—the club has been playing on the ground since 1929—is quoted as saying that "If they (the pitches) go, so do we." Definitely a case of 1.b.w.—lorries before wickets.
I am intrigued by a recent application for a B-licence variation which may put ideas into the heads of other stately home owners. From their base at Longford Castle, Wilts, Woodlands (Contracting and Marketing) Ltd. seek to add a 7 ton 16 cwt fiat vehicle to carry timber and building materials on behalf of The Earl of Radnor, The Viscount Cranborne, Maj. S. V. Christie-Miller, The Dowager Lady St. Just, The Hon. Peter Pleydell-Bouverie, The Viscount Folkestone and other clients, with return loads of timber and building materials to the estates of clients of the applicants within 210 miles. I am all for "do it yourself ", and can't resist wondering who is going to do the driving. Who Drives ?
Chivalrous Crew While rushing to get on an
Edinburgh Corporation bus recently a woman—her hands full of shopping—wrenched her shoulder rather badly. The bus crew asked all the passengers—and it was during the rush hour—to disembark so that they could get the woman to hospital for medical attention. It transpired, however, that she preferred to go to her own doctor. So the bus set off completely off its route now—with its one passenger for the doctor's surgery Alas, the doctor was not in and so, undaunted, the crew wrote a note asking the doctor to call at the woman's house as soon as he got back. Then off again went the doubledecker bus to take the lady home, and when they arrived, the crew gave her a cup of tea out of one of their flasks. The local Press, of course, made a lot of this chivalrous act on the part of the bus crew—which is fair enough-but I wonder what the passengers who were put otf the bus thought!
Pirate Brigade Giving the local official fire
service a shock at Billingshurst, Sussex is a Mr. Paul Adorian, who has formed a pirate fire brigade with a collection of vintage engines rescued from various scrap heaps. These machines, which range from an 1870 horse-drawn vehicle to a 1941 Dennis, apparently have raced off to four fires ahead of the official part-time brigade. Mr. Adorian claims that his 1911 appliance is the oldest Dennis fire engine in the vintage field.
Road Safety Officers We recently announced the formation of a new association for industrial road safety
officers. Mr. A. E. E. Teer, road safety officer of Schweppes (Home) Ltd., who is the acting secretary of the new association, tells me that he has had good response to the announcement and that the inaugural meeting will be held in London on September 8 at a venue still to be decided. This will be published as soon as it k known.
I gather that some pretty big names in the transport world will be attending—one from as far afield as Hexhant, Northumberland: Membership Of the association, by the way, is restricted to companies who employ someone specifically as road safety officer—and some of the larger organizations who do not have such a person would, perhaps, do well to think about doing so—it may help when the road transport Industrial Training Board and heavy goods vehicle licences come into force. Mr. Teer has acted for the past two years as organizing secretary of the London LDOY round—and if the organizing of that is anything to judge from, the new Association is bound to be a success. He can be contacted at Schweppes' London headquarters—telephone, Hop 8011.
Correction In our issue of June 18 it was stated in a paragraph in Bird's Eye View that optical lenses fm. the German Zeiss concern were being made in Japan. We are informed by Carl Zeiss of the German Federal Republic that this is incorrect and that they do not have spectacle or other optical lense.s produce(' in Japan.