When Vans are Standing By
Page 26
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ASUMMONS against a firm, in the person of their van driver, for obstructing the thoroughfare outside their own premises, was recently dismissed by Salisbury magistrates.
The police admitted that partial obstruction of this nature took place every day. Their objection was that the van was being neither loaded nor unloaded. They suggested that when a van was not actually being loaded or unloaded, it should be taken to a car park. The police agreed that their cars stood outside police stations, on occasion, for more than half an hour.
The firm's position, as explained by the manager of Messrs. Blooms, modistes, was that during the past six years, their' custom had been to leave the van in the street at the front of the premises for loading and unloading. The vehicle was 4 ft. 6 ins. wide. The suggestion that every time the machine returned to the business premises it should be taken to a car park was not
feasible. Vans had often to make special runs during business hours in response to telephone orders.
The driver stated that he saw no obstruction and there was room for two cars to pass in the space left between his van and the farther edge of the road, Mr. H. T. Jones, for the defence, said that, in effect, the question that the Bench had to decide was whether on this occasion unnecessary obstruction was committed. The magistrates, he suggested, must interpret the law with reason and not in a way which made business life impossible. • • The bench admitted that the circumstances were difficult. The police, they thought, were justified in bringing this case and must be obeyed. The Mayor of Salisbury, chairman, stating that it was difficult for police and traders, pleaded for goodwill on each side. The case was then dismissed on a caution, with payment of 4s. costs.