No need for more removers, says Tribunal
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• The appeal by Alan Walton, of Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, against a decision of the Northern LA was dismissed by the Transport Tribunal in London on Tuesday. Hoults Ltd. and the THC (Pickfords Ltd) were respondent.
Mr. B. Montgomery, for the appellant, said that the appeal arose from the refusal of the Northern LA to grant Mr. Walton an A licence for a furniture van with a normal user of "furniture and household effects as required; other goods within a radius of 40 miles". If the licence had been granted, he said, the same vehicle would have been removed from the appellant's B licence.
A list of 84 jobs which the appellant had either been unable to do or had subcontracted had been produced at the public inquiry. The LA, however, had not found Mr. Walton's use of subcontractors to comply with accepted practice in the furniture removals industry. "Family removals", he had said, "are a personal matter." Mr. Montgomery, however, thought that the most important factor was that the customer be satisfied.
It was not without significance, thought Mr. Montgomery, that the only objectors to the application and now the only respondents, had been the two largest removals concerns in the area; no small operators— those most likely to be affected by a grant —had provided any objections.
Mr. T. H. Campbell Wardlaw, for the objectors, said that details of Mr. Walton's earnings and the schedule of work subcontracted or not carried out constituted the whole of the appellant's case. If this appeal were allowed, he submitted, any haulier could apply with a certain amount of confidence when he wanted an A licence in place of his B licence.
Giving the decision of the tribunal to dismiss the appeal, Mr. G. D. Squibb, QC, President of the Tribunal, said that the three complaints which had arisen over the subcontracted work did not amount to evidence of need for further long-distance removal facilities in the Newcastle area.