Edinburgh May Build Test Bodies
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FIVE commissioners appointed by the chairman of committees of the House of Lords and the chairman of Ways and Means committee of the House of Commons, at a public inquiry in Edinburgh on Monday, approved an application by Edinburgh Corporation for sanction to build their own bus bodies, but only for experiment.
Approval to the plan, contained in the Edinburgh Corporation Draft Provisional Order, was given subject to deletion of a section containing the corporation's request for powers to build the bodies for the purposes of the transport undertaking.
Mr. C. W. Graham Guest, Q.C., for the corporation, offered to insert a subclause stating that the municipality would not, in a period of three years, manufacture bodies in numbers exceeding a fifth of the number required for the purpose of the undertaking.
The chairman, the Earl of Mansfield, said that the Commissioners were unable to accept this compromise.
The application was opposed by the Federation of British Industries, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and Scottish Motor Traders Association. A document presented by the objectors said they felt that such powers would duplicate existing facilities and reduce the amount of business available to private enterprise.
Mr. William Little, Edinburgh's transport manager, told the inquiry that over the corporation's period of control only 165 tram bodies had been built—an average of about 10 a year.
Mr. A. M. Johnston, for the objectors. submitted that the plan was inconsistent with powers conferred by Parliament. and that the corporation were trying to get the power " by the back door."
NO "COACH SERVICE FOR PROPERTY HOLDERS"
AN application for a coach service from Leicestershire to the Norfolk coast had been made for the benefit of people who let property at the seaside, it was stated before the East Midlands Licensing Authority last week.
Messrs. T. W. Barweil, Carlisle Street, Leicester, were refused permission to run a coach service on Saturdays in the summer between Kirby Mwdoe and Bacton-on-Sea, Norfolk.
Mr. C. D. Geech, for the applicants, said that Leicester would be the main picking-up point. There were numbers of Leicester people who wanted to travel direct to the seaside villages for a quiet holiday. Mindesley Parish Council supported the application.
Mr. J. Granville Dixon, for the British Transport Commiss_iort, one of the objectors, said that the application was not for the travelling public, but for the benefit of owners of bungalows and chalets on the coast who wanted to let their property. Leicester was the " big fish they *ere after.