Buchanan wins licence
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• A Stoke-onTrent minibus operator who had threatened to sue West Midland Traffic Commissioner John Mervyn Pugh for loss of earnings and defamation of character arising out of his licence application, was granted a PSV 0-licence at a Birmingham public inquiry on 28 March.
Gerald Buchanan, trading as Executive Travel, had applied for a national licence for one minibus. Mervyn Pugh said the Traffic Area Office had had lies, threats and bad manners from Buchanan, whose application was received on 27 February.
Buchanan had telephoned to ask for an early public inquiry. He was told it usually took eight weeks to deal with a licence application.
The inquiry was fixed for 17 March. Buchanan rang to say he could not attend as he was taking his CPC examination that day. He claimed that if the licence was not granted on the 17th he would lose a contract with Wedgwood and become bankrupt. It was later said that if the licence was not granted by 24 March, the contract would be lost.
When the office asked for sight of the contract Buchanan had forbidden them to approach Wedgwood, saying he would sue the Commissioner for defamation of character and loss of earnings.
Buchanan said he had followed the advice of his solicitor. He had bought an eight-seater minibus believing he could operate it without a licence. He found that was not so, and applied for a licence.
He had said he would become bankrupt, but only because he did not want the bank to ask what was happening. He denied saying to the Office that the person training him for his CPC was a personal friend of the Commissioner and that the application would be treated accordingly.
Pugh said the person concerned had been consulted and had denied any conversation about Buchanan's licence. Despite what Buchanan had said, he had not lost the Wedgwood contract. Buchanan said he realised he had got off on the wrong . footing and he wished to apologise. Mervyn Pugh said that he accepted that apology.
Granting a licence, Mervyn Pugh said Buchanan had got off to an appalling start. However, he would put it down to excitement. He stressed that it was a Traffic Area policy to deal with each application as quickly as possible.