Fish lorries in difficult
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ACK OF weighing facilities t ports on the West Coast of cotland are causing great ifficulties with fish lorries eing overloaded, the Scottish eputy Licensing Authority as been told.
A director of an Aberdeen wn-account operator, Dr 'rancis Clark, made two uccessful pleas for his own ompany and one for another irm at a public inquiry before he deputy LA in Aberdeen. Dr Clark, a director of tipper Seafoods Ltd, had leen called to show cause why he company's licences should lot be revoked, suspended, )rematurely terminated or :urtailed under Section 69(1) )f the Transport Act 1968.
The company had been :ailed before the Authority )ecause of an alleged werloading offence. Dr Clark ;aid his firm had not been tharged with any overloading )ffences in a prohibition .ssued in connection with a orry which had returned to Felixstowe harbour from the Continent.
Loading restrictions were different on the Continent and, at Felixstowe, part of the load had been put on another lorry. A statement to that effect had been written on the prohibition order by an inspector.
Minor offence
The firm had been charged with an axle-overloading offence in respect of the same vehicle at Cambridge three days earlier. There was no overloading of gross weight on the lorry, but the load had not been correctly distributed a minor offence.
The deputy LA John Dalgetty agreed there was confusion over the overloading and decided to take no action on the firm's licences. Dr Clark then made a statement in support of an appeal to add five more vehicles and trailers to the firm's licence.
He told the inquiry that at least 80 per cent of the firm's business was in the export trade and the only way this could be done properly was to have its own vehicles for sending goods to Europe. To cope with the increasing business the company required five additional vehicles and trailers.
After the application was granted, Dr Clark's solicitor, A. P. Brown, Fraserburgh, asked Dr Clark if he could verify a statement made earlier, by another of his clients about overloading problems with fish lorries.
G. & J. Jack, Fraserburgh, had been called before the inquiry because of three overloading offences and had two vehicle . licences suspended for two months. Dr Clark agreed there were great difficulties with fish lorries being overloaded at West Coast ports because of the lack of facilities for having them weighed.
One month
Much depended on how much fish was loaded into each box and how much ice was placed on them. Another problem was, once on the road, there was nothing much that could be done with the extra fish.
Mr Dalgetty said: "In view of your plea, I will reconsider my previous decision and make the reduction of two vehicles in the licence for one month instead of for two."
No actionwas taken in respect of A. Walker & Son (Haulage) Ltd, Bucksburn; D. M. Duncan (Plant) Ltd, Alford, and R. A. Nicol, Gartly.