Tribunal raps DLA
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A DEPUTY Licensing Authority was wrong to place too much weight on residents' evidence at an environmental hearing, the Transport Tribunal has ruled.
Roy Nightingale, of °ekington, Cambridgeshire, faced a public inquiry last December when he had applied to move half a mile to a new operating centre.
Eastern DLA Charles ArnoldBaker agreed to grant the licence for his one lorry — but only for a year and with three conditions. After the year, the residents could make representations again, he said.
Mr Nightingale appealed to the Transport Tribunal on the second condition that said that he could not leave his depot before 6am.
At the Tribunal last week, his counsel, Michael Webb, accused the DLA of slipping up in law.
He said that the DLA allowed the fact that the residents could not appeal against his final decision to affect that decision.
"The Act was framed by Parliament, and it would be wrong that the LA should adopt a more favourable attitude to
wards the representors because of this," Mr Webb argued.
Transport Tribunal president "Judge lnskip agreed that the DLA's decision to fix a year's licence seemed to flow from the fact that the residents had no right of appeal — and that it was the wrong thing to do.
But Judge lnskip still dismissed the appeal against the 5am condition and said that the Tribunal was "satisfied that the LA had imposed proper and desirable conditions".
Mr Webb had argued that the nature of Mr Nightingale's fruit and vegetable business meant that he had to leave his operating centre twice a week before the Earn restriction.
And if instead of leaving at 3.30am on Wednesdays for London, he had to leave later, the best produce would be gone, he said. Mr Nightingale had threatened that this would lead to the majority of his 16 staff being laid off, Mr Webb said.