Salt hauliers cleared
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• Three hauliers, who had a contract to carry salt for a local council, have been cleared of overloading after magistrates dismissed charges brought by the county's own trading standards officers.
Martin Cawley, a partner of Cawley Bros, Llanrwst, North Wales, denied nine allegations of using vehicles which exceeded their permitted gross weight before Bangor magistrates. Iuan Williams, of Port Madoc, denied a similar charge and Michael Lloyd Williams denied two allegations.
Divisional trading standards officer Peter Roberts said the charges had arisen from the examination of weight tickets obtained from three weighbridges, which had related to the carriage of salt between Penrhyn Port, Bangor and two County Council depots. The tickets had shown a range of overloads, varying between 4.78% and 29.25%.
Questioned by Jonathan Lawton, defending, Roberts said he was unaware of any instructions given by the county to its officers, or contractors, relating to the carriage of material. He understood that it was possible to off-load excess weight at two of the weighbridges.
Douglas Roberts, stores supervisor at the county's Llanrwst highways depot, pro duced various delivery notes and a schedule showing the delivery ticket numbers and the net weights received.
In reply to Lawton, Roberts agreed that only one of the delivery notes had been signed by him, and the others had been signed by a G Thomas. He could not say if he had seen the load in question, saying that the usual practice was for the driver to come to his office, after the load was tipped, and he would then sign the delivery note.
Lawton pointed out that there had been discrepancies in some of the weight tickets. The registration number of the vehicle indicated that it belonged to one or other of the defendants, when the name of the owner shown on the weight ticket was that of a totally different company. Against the evidence that excess might have been offloaded, there was no evidence that the vehicles had travelled on the road in an overloaded condition.
In dismissing the charges, and ordering that the defence costs be paid out of public funds, the magistrates said they felt that the county's management practices should be reconsidered.
Following the magistrates' decision, similar allegations against Williams Bros (Wales) were withdrawn.