FLASHPOINTS OF FRUSTRATION
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Tim Ridyard says there are several issues that frustrate operators and the lawyers who represent them including: • O-licence applications take too long to process, even seemingly straightforward ones.
• Environmental objections – the views of a single neighbour can cause significant delay. Leeds too easily imposes unnecessary restrictions on operating centres. • Objectors who don’t understand the restrictions on TCs – they think they can govern what happens on the wider road network, but they can only deal with the operating centre. Particularly annoying are those who move opposite the haulier’s gates and then make objections.
• Centralised licensing is here to stay, but staff in a centralised office can’t have the regional knowledge or understand the geography and make-up of operators in an area.
• Statutory adverts placed to advise of an O-licence application. It’s not always accepted that the advert covers the necessary territory, even though it clearly does. Ridyard cites a “bizarre scenario” where it was not accepted that a Cambridge paper circulates just outside Cambridge.