Minister Allows 'Experimental' Variation
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THE Minister of Transport has partially allowed an appeal by J. W. Fieldsend Ltd. for four additional picking-up points and has ordered the North Western Commissioners to vary conditions on licences so as to authorize an additional pickingup and setting-down point at Peel Green on excursions to Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and Llandudno.
The case for the proposed modifications should rest, the decision said, only on the evidence of passengers travelling with the• appellant's services under its name. It would not be right to attach weight to the fact that passengers on the joint service to Pwllheli were using the proposed new picking-up points, because the destination was not one of those affected by the appeals and no evidence was led that passengers might choose to visit different holiday resorts from year to year.
Demand at two of the picking-up points proposed was altogether too slight to warrant new facilities. As to a third picking-up point in Eccles, demand and possible need were stronger, but alternative facilities, in particular British Railways, existed.
The appellant's case for a point at Wheatley's Garage at Peel Green was in a different class for potential demand and need. Alternative road services were not really adequate. Because of the nearness of British Railways' services, the Minister had doubts as to whether he should allow this point, but a case had "narrowly been made out ". However, because of considerable doubts, the Minister proposed to regard the matter as an experiment limited for the present to 1963 only. The question of fares he was content to leave to be determined by the Commissioners.