PJ Brown granted new 0-Licence following P1
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THE BOSS OF Crawley, West Sussex tipper specialist PJ Brown — which went into administration in December last year — has been successful in a bid for an 0-licence for his new haulage operation.
At a public inquiry (P1) in Eastbourne on Monday 25 October, Maly Kane, South East and Metropolitan Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC), granted new company PJ Brown (Construction) authorisation for 69 vehicles and one trailer, based at three sites.
Peter Brown, director and transport manager at the company, told the hearing his old firm had made an "error" by expanding into the utilities sector, having successfully provided groundworks services to the construction industry for many years.
The company had lost /1.5m as a result of this move and Brown had injected £2m of his own money into the business in an attempt to keep it going.
There was also what Kane described as the -elephant in the room", where PJ Brown had been fined £25,000 at Maidstone Crown Court in May 2010 following an Environment Agency prosecution into illegal dumping of waste materials at a site in Polhill, Kent, involving 12 hauliers.
However, the DTC accepted none of the operators had intended any illegal conduct and that the judge in the case had also not found any "deliberate intent".
The PI heard how PJ Brown had recorded an Operator Compliance Risk Score in the green category for 2008 and 2009. and had a 100% tvfoT pass rate for its vehicles during this period.
Kane told Brown: "This should be a case of going back to what you are good at "You have lost a lot of personal money and having to attend this public inquiry means you will be extremely cautious in future."