Incomplete Application No Ground for Refusal
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N appeal by Scottish Omnibuses, ILtd., and the Railway Executive ainst the grant of a licence to St. tthbert's Co-operative Association, d., by the Sc o tt is h Licensing ithority to allow them to operate a .ee-day tour from Edinburgh to ahesay and Dunoon has been disssed with costs by the Minister of ansport.
The appellants claimed that the ginal application had been presented tbout proper preparation. They re not clear about the number of -tides they would require, the ferry trge was not included in the fare, the 'es were wrong because they were culated on the basis that 20-seat tches would be used whereas the tte restricted them to 14-seaters,
did not know the route of the posed tour round Bute, and the imated running costs were given as 4s. Rd., against the revenue from passengers of only £18 1 Is. 3epreciation, licensing, maintenance I supervisory costs had been omitted. ese would add E4 7s. 6d. to the run s Costs and, therefore, the tour was ;rating uneconomically.
Elie appellants claimed that because these unsatisfactory features, the tification for the application .must examined.
:cottish Omnibuses submitted that.
the :oute was already adequately served by tours, There was no evidence of a demand for a tour round Bute, and even if there were some slight demand, that did not make the service desirable in the public interest.
The railways said that if the applica lion was granted there would be abstraction of passengers from the rail services in summer.
The respondents submitted that there was ample evidence of demand. There was no existing tour from Edinburgh to Rothesay by the proposed route The existing day tours went by a different way and did not pass through scenery so attractive as that on the proposed route.
• The Ministry of Transport inspector, Mr. E. J. Keith, said that although there was some justification for the appellants' criticism of the way in which the application was prepared, that did not directly affect the matters on which the decision depended.
There was evidence of a reasonable demand for the tour, and he agreed with the Licensing Authority's view that he was entitled to take into consideration the opinion that the tour was desirable in the public interest. Whilst there might be some abstraction from other services, the maximum number of passengers that could be carried in one week was 28.