Builders' Merchants in Awkward Position
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QNLY now are some builders' merchants feeling the sting of the position which has arisen under the Road and Rail Traffic Act, by which the trade custom among these merchants of helping out clients in matters of transport is forbidden.
Last week, Mr. Henry Backhouse (C.M.U.A. solicitor) put the issue with much force to Sir William Hart, NorthWestern Deputy Licensing Authority, but received no encouragement. Before Mr. Bathhouse had finished his case, Sir William dismissed the application.
It appeared that the applicant, Mr. W. J. Lewis, of Warwick Street, Oldham, builders' merchant and carrier, had previously been in the habit of obliging customers by carrying such loads as tools, rubbish and oddments, instead of returning empty, and generally without receiving any definite consideration. Not realizing that this practice would be interfered with, he had taken out a C licence, but now wished to run his 2-ton vehicle under a B licence.
Mr. Backhouse maintained that the Enston ruling did not apply to an application to change from the C to the B category. He submitted thata suitable condition could be imposed on a B licence to protect other carriers. Surely, he added, it could not be in the public interest that a man able to carry all material for the building of a house should not be allowed tO take the necessary tools?