Miners Appeal for Licences
Page 52
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AN importantappeal by the Betteshanger Miners •Mutual Self-help Club against the refusal of the SouthEastern Traffic Commissioners to grant licences to operate buses between Dover and Deal and I3etteshanger Colliery, for the conveyance of miners to and from their work, was heard at Dover on Monday.
Mr. O'Malley, for the club, said that it was originally formed as a result of the profound dissatisfaction of the men with the service then provided by the independent operators. The vehicles were overcrowded and.the men had, in many cases, to wait for a long time. Between shifts the vehicles were used for carrying coal, and, as pithead baths had now been installed at the mine, the men objected to travelling in such buses.
• Financial Arrangements.
The club entered into an agreement to pay some £.6,000 for seven buses and three lorries, £1,900 having been lent by a Mr. Dutson, whilst the remainder of the money was to be paid in 18 monthly instalments. The vehicles were purchased at a time when, it was submitted, a club needed no roadservice licences. When, however, the 1934 Act was passed, the Betteshanger organization applied for licences, which the South-Eastern Traffic Commissioners refused on the grounds that the fares charged were uneconomic, that no provision had been made for the overhaul and maintenance of the buses, and that the whole scheme was unsound.
Mr. O'Malley submitted that the Commissioners, instead of refusing the licences on such grounds, should have granted them on condition that the deficiencies were remedied. The club would have been prepared to increase the fares, if necessary, to employ a skilled mechanic and to negotiate a fresh and less onerous agreement with
B38 the vendors of the buses. By refusing the licences, hardship was being inflicted on the men, who had contracted heavy obligations and would be deprived of the means for meeting them.
The Objectors' Case.
Mr. N. A. J. Cohen, for the objecting independent operators, submitted that the evidence had proved no public need ; in fact, it showed that the club's operations could not be self-supporting, unless they were able to attract a considerable number of the independent operators' passengers. The scheme, as prepared by Mr. Dutson, allowed for 1,490 men using the buses, whereas the club had only 800 members.
The instalments amounted to £67 a week. In one of the best weeks, the club's runnina6 costs were £70 and the receipts £93 10s. After allowing for the instalment of £67, this left a deficit on the week of £44, so that the concern was really hopelessly insolvent. It was submitted that the vendors had agreed to accept £10 a week towards the purchase price, but that would mean that the cost of the buses would not be met for nine years, whereas it was stated in evidence that their life would be only about four or five years.
Mr. Cohen submitted that, if the licences were not granted, the persons who would be harmed would be those who could afford it, namely, Mr. Dutson and the hire-purchase company, and that, on the evidence before them, the Commissioners could not have come to any other decision.