Minibus Tour App lication Refused,
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AN application by Mr. J. R. Cotton, of Brighton, owner of Pleasure •Way Tours, for a licence to run tours in a 12-seater Minibus was refused by the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners at Brighton on Friday. Mr. Cotton proposed to run tours to Venice, -the Costa Brava, the Dutch bulb fields and one to North Wales at Easter. The application was opposed by Southdown Motor Services Ltd., East Kent Road Car Co. Ltd., Blue Cars Continental Coach Cruises Ltd., Red Line Continental Motorways Ltd., Glenton Tours, British Railways Board and the Workers' Transport Association.
Giving the Commissioners' decision, Mr. H. J. Thom said that there was not a shred of evidence to support the application and added that it was not the first time that Mr. Cotton had failed to provide the evidence that they considered necessary to make any grant of a licence.
It was clear, he said, that what Mr. Cotton's witnesses wanted was a private party operation,
Mr. Cotton had told the Commissioners that he had been unable to run tours this year because of a High Court ease in which he was a witness. He said he could not see how his tours interfered with coach operators. "I cannot understand this constant opposition to my little rninibu&"
When Mr. G. Duckworth, for Southdown, said that his company supplied a very considerable range of extended tours to the Continent and submitted that the applicant had brought no evidence in support, Mr. Cotton declared: "All these people are very trivial towards a tiny minibus operation. I have taken my clients to places Southdown would not dream of taking their people into at night." Mr. Cotton later said he would appeal.