He never read the conditions
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• At Ulverston last week the Northern LA, Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, heard an applicant admit to operating outside both his Alicence normal user and his B-licence conditions.
At the resumed inquiry, A. Cooksey of Barrow-in-Furness, applied for a new A licence for six vehicles to amalgamate all the conditions of vehicles he had acquired over the years, and to add two more articulated units. British Railways and British Road Services were objecting.
Mr. Cooksey, a local councillor, said he had been a haulier for 14 years but admitted that he had never read the conditions on the back of his licence. When he had acquired businesses he had neglected to adhere to the permitted conditions. Having produced logsheets, he told Mr. J. A. Backhouse, for BR, that he had run a regular service to and from Nottingham, outside his normal user. He said he thought he was permitted to operate 25 per cent outside the conditions of an A-licence. The logsheets also showed that he had run regularly to London for Bowater Scott, bringing back return loads in breach of his B-licence conditions.
Mr. P. Staples, company secretary of Elbeo Ltd., hosiery manufacturer, Nottingham, said the question of whether the company expanded its activities in Millom de
pended on good communications. Three hundred women were employed in the area. "It means a lot to Millom," commented Mr. Hanlon. Mr. Cooksey had carried the first load in his car and was now running a service two or three times weekly for Elbeo.
Mr. Hanlon said that if Mr. Cooksey had not "taken the law into his own hands" but had applied on acquisition of more vehicles for wider conditions with some of the evidence he had submitted to the present inquiry, he was sure the applicant could have proved need.
He decided, by way of penalty, to suspend one vehicle for one month and refuse the addition of the two artics. He granted six vehicles on A licence, subject to the surrender of all existing licences and said that if traffic built up Mr. Cooksey could apply again with a proper normal user, after the one-month suspension period had expired.
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