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TC adjourns inquiry into licence-lending
Page 23
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NORTH-WESTERN Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell has adjourned an inquiry considering action against two operators who had lent licence discs to a third after realising she had met one of them socially. The inquiry will now be held by a different TC in December.
The TC was considering action against the licence for one vehicle and one trailer held by Longridge, Lancashire-based RH Slater & Sons Ltd and the licence for five vehicles and live trailers held by Carlisle-based Alan Haider. A bid for a fresh three-vehicle licence by North West Recycling and Aggregates, the directors of which were Peter and Stacey Slater, had been withdrawn.
The TC said it appeared that Peter and Stacey Slater had applied for a licence to do work on the M74 contract but not for interim authority to start operation. They put two vehicles on the licence held by RH Slater, the directors of which were Peter's brother, David, and his wife. Cherry.Those vehicles were parked at Longtown, which was not an authorised operating centre. A third vehicle was put on Falder's licence. David Slater had admitted taking a vehicle off the Slater firm licence and continuing to operate it without authority.
For the two operators, Michael Cunningham said that six hardworking people had got themselves into a "real mess". The sad thing
was that if Peter and Stacey Slater had done things properly, they would have had a good business, he added. They had lost a fortune and had to sell up. The licence application had been withdrawn as everything was taking so long; the vehicles had been laid up and the drivers dismissed. In addition the lease payments for vehicles had been crippling.
The TC said she did not think that it had been a cold-blooded attempt to circumvent the 0licensing scheme, though it had been circumvented. However, she did not think she could deal with the case as she had met Peter Slater socially.