One-year-only '0' licence
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Michael Grufferty's 0-licence (for Stella Mans Brothers Coaches) has been renewed for one year only by North Eastern Traffic Commissioner Frederick Whalley. The commissioner said he was restricting Stella Mans to a year because he was worried about an application from a partnership of Grufferty and his three sons to take over the business.
Grufferty, of Peterlee, County Durham, accepted a suggestion that the application be amended to one for a licence in his name only to enable the business to continue operating.
Whalley said the previous licence had expired, and as the new application was in a different name there were no continuation rights. He could not deal with the partnership's application because the financial information submitted was insufficient, and the maintenance contracts were in the name of the previous licence holder.
The two local services which were registered were also in the name of the previous licence holder, and they would have to be re-registered in the name of the new owners.
Grufferty said they had been caught on the hop as they had thought the application would be dealt with as a continuation of the existing licence. Had they realised it was to be dealt with as an application for a new licence they would certainly have made the necessary information available.
Senior vehicle examiner John Duffy said an immediate prohibition had been imposed on a spare vehicle which had been sent out on service after the engine of another vehicle had seized up, illustrating the danger of not regularly inspecting spare vehicles.
Grufferty said that he had built up the business with the idea of passing it over to his sons. Last year they had tried to expand by acquiring another firm. They had taken what they were told at face value and got their fingers burnt. From having a solid little business they had got into a mess. They now realised that big was not necessarily beautiful and they had cut down to four vehicles. They just wanted to run a small, sound family business.
After hearing evidence that the maintenance facilities had been refurbished and that the vehicles were now generally in a satisfactory condition, Whalley granted a licence to Grufferty on the understanding that an application would be made in the name of the partnership at the end of the year including all the necessary information.