Weighbridge queried
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• Oldham-based Dew Group challenged the accurac-v of the Ainley _ Top dynamic weighbridge for weighing abnormal loads vehicles when it denied overloading a special types vehicle, Prosecuting, Khalid Butt said that when the sevenaided attic was checked at Ainley Top it had a train weight of 90,270kg. The drive axles on the tractor were found to exceed the maximum axle weight of 14,500kg. The first drive axle exceeded the maximum weight by 2,490kg and the second by 2,110kg.
Butt argued at the Barnsley magistrates emir hearing that as the vehicle was overloaded, it lost the protection of special types provisions and fell within Construction and Use regulations. This meant that the permitted train weight was 38,000kg -exceeded by 52270 kg-03701.
A principal trading standards officer at the hearing said he had tested his theory that the vehicle was longer than the weighbridge by hiring a vehicle with a trombone The officer concluded there was nothing wrong with using the weighbridge to weigh such vehicles. He weighed the vehicle and trailer first at the ICI weighbridge and found the train weight to be 33,670kg. He then weighed the vehicle with the trailer at different lengths at Ainley lbp, and the train weight results varied from 33,410kg to 33,540kg. The results did not surprise him as the weighbridge at Ainley Top was "adjusted to the advantage of the haulier".
In reply to Jonathan Lawton, defending, Smith said that he did not know whether there were any dynamic weighbridges along the route notified to the authorities. He agreed that the driver could not deviate from the notified route. He said that Ainley Top was last tested with axle weights of 16,000kg within the past two to three years. Asked how he explained the sixth axle weight of 7,160kg, Smith said that there could have been something wrong with the trailer.
The magistrates adjourned the hearing to a date Lobe fixed.