Short change weight probe
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TWO INSPECTORS of the Cheshire county trading standards department have been specially assigned to investigate underweight deliveries to building sites, according to the annual report of the controller, Mr Kenneth Nattrass, The report suggests that dishonest hauliers are shortchanging contractors with underweight deliveries of sand, hardcore and other construction materials, Mr Nattrass explains : "it is rather disturbing to find that site engineers are allowing many thousands of tons to be delivered to sites without knowing whether the weights an delivery tickets are correct or demanding tickets before deliveries are made. Even worse is the situation where the first load of the day is weighed and subsequent loads that day are supposed to be loaded in the same manner' although not weighed."
When the department's inspectors made sport checks, they found the first loads were "very heavy," but that subsequent deliveries the same day were deficient by as much as 4 tons. Of 159 weights and measures prosecutions taken out by Cheshire's trading standards department during 1974/ 75, 44 were connected with hardcore and topsoil. 'Many other offences are still to be taken before tile magistrates," Mr Nattrass adds.