Absentee operators told off
Page 23
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Transport Tribunal report by Johnny Johnson .N REMITTING the case of a lampstead tipper operator for .econsideration by the Metro)olitan LA, the Transport Triulna' recorded its disquiet 'bout a number of operators who fail to turn up at public inquiries.
The operators then expected to present their case on appeal because the LA had taken a decision in their absence.
After the renewal of her four-vehicle 0-licence had been refused by the Metropolitan deputy LA when she failed to attend the public inquiry in December, Mrs E. L. Wilson told the Tribunal that she had been ill in hospital.
She had found a letter advising her of the date of the Tribunal when she returned home. Her son had been looking after the business in her absence, but despite not being f u 11 y recovered she had resolved to attend herself. On the day she had overlooked the hearing.
But later the same day she remembered and telephoned to apologise to the traffic court.
But by that time the proceedings had ended and the renewal was refused.
At that inquiry, said Mrs Wilson, the vehicle examiner • had been less than fair in what he had said about her vehicles. One of those complained of had only recently been overturned and damaged. When the examiner had called it had just returned from Northampton where it had been rebodied and new tipping gear installed. Remedial work on other defects had not yet been undertaken. Despite this, the examiner had noted brake defects which were due for correction before the vehicle again went on the road. This he had not brought out in his evidence.
A better reflection of the state of her fleet might have been gained from the fact that shortly after the fleet inspection, two of her vehicles were sent to the testing station for their annual inspection and were passed without comment.
On the matter of records, some doubt seemed to have been expressed about the theft which had taken place from Mrs Wilson's home and office. It had involved two cabinets with the records inside, as well as other office equipment and household effects. The theft had been reported to the police.
Mrs Wilson refused a suggestion by the vehicle examiner that she had been "uncooperative."
Giving the Tribunal's decision, the chairman, Mr G. D. Squibb, said that too many cases of this kind were arising. Reasons for not attending ranged from the deliberate, bordering on the contempt, to mishap on the way to the hearing.
In Mrs Wilson's case, however, the Tribunal was inclined to accept that she had had a genuine lapse of memory in view of her recent illness. It was, therefore, prepared to stretch a point in her case, though the Metropolitan deputy LA had been justified in his decision on the evidence then before him.