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• Manchester City Magistrates have thrown out overloading charges against Stockport-based Allinson Stone, and ordered the defence costs to be met out of public funds.
Allinson and driver Kenneth Saxon pleaded not guilty to overloading the two rear compensating axles of a four-axled rigid tipper by 2,540kg (13.5%).
Paul Jones, a technical officer of Manchester City Council, said that a preliminary check with weigh pads indicated that there was an overload and the vehicle was directed to the plate weighbridge at the Sharston waste transfer station.
The whole vehicle was weighed to obtain the gross weight, but in order to weigh the rear compensating axles it was moved forward so that the two front axles were just off the weighbridge.
Questioned by John Backhouse, defending, Jones said that the front two axles had not been weighed to check if the total axle weights gave an accurate indication of the gross weight.
The records of the weigh pad results had been lost, he said.
Road Haulage Association consultant surveyor Maurice Vandome told the court that a survey of the weighbridge showed the concrete apron on the plate exit undulated both above and below the level of the plate to a maximum difference of 30mm.
A Transport and Road Research Laboratory report in 1981 had found that raising one wheel by more than 20mm over the plane of another could give an increase of over 10% in weight.
There was an increase in weight in circumstances where the axle on the plate was higher than the remainder of the vehicle because of the downward effect of the drag, and he maintained that undulations of 15mm could result in an error of 13%.
The magistrates dismissed the charge against the company, and after they failed to agree upon a verdict in relation to the driver, Liz Tracey, prosecuting, asked that the charge against Saxon also be dismissed.