Judge rejects appeal
Page 12
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'II I E TRA N SPORT Tribunal has rejected an appeal by three haulage companies against the decision (CM. October 19) by the North Western Licensing Authority refusing their move of operating base from a residential area near Preston to an old railway yard at Leyland.
North Western LA Roy Ilutchings had refused an application by I) and A Transport to renew its licence specifying the yard at Midge Ilan. Leyland. as its operating centre, and variation applications by F. Burns (Transport), and J.T. Greenwood Transport (Longton) to specify the Saint: centre. They wanted to move their combined operation from Longton and to specify 54 vehicles.
Another phrase The IA said he refused the application because the rules governing the parking of vehicles include the movement of vehicles within the operating centre.
The legislators, the LA said, would have used another phrase if they had intended the rules to cover only the visual aspect or parking vehicles.
John Backhouse, for the three appellants, told the Tribunal that the purport of the new environmental provisions is not to provide an operating centre for each vehicle.
Any vehicle must be kept somewhere, he said, and Judge Hampden Inskip,
presiding, observed: "In the old provisions of operating centres, vehicles could be kept at several different places; under the new Act each place becomes an operating centre."
Backhouse said that up to 19 vehicles and 19 trailers are parked at Midge I hill; no evidence had been given at the Licensing Authority hearing that the visual aspect hurt the environment.
Material change
would tile grant of the application snake a material change? Planning permission made it clear the whole site was listed for use by a haulage contractor in 1967.
When one said that a site has an "adverse affect on the n.livironment" or is "unsuitable for use on environmental grounds", one must nevertheless start from the fact that anywhere is unsuitable and a balance must be kept between degrees of unsuitability and the views of people living nearby. "One cannot, it seems to me, disregard the fact that planning permission has been granted."
"[he LA, he said, had erred in refusing the licence on the evidence that parked vehicles merely stood there.
His client, he said, had rebuilt a workshop on the site and intended to use the site as a fuelling point: these site activities would continue anyw y , but mean fewer journeys in and out if the application were granted. 11 it
were an operating base the LA could impose conditions to the advantage of residents.
If improvements were made to the base, there could be no material change inviting the LA to refuse. Although the application was for 54 vehicles. 15 were currently operated and the three companies would like to operate 30 between them.
Asked by Judge lnskip whether he "had used this beguiling argument" to the LA of improving the environment by granting the application for an operating base, Backhorse replied: "Yes, Sir: bringing the site under control is desirable."
David Smith, objecting to the application for Lancashire County Council and South Ribble Borough Council, said the environmental legislation covers a great deal more than the blot on the landscape aspect. It includes the visual, aural :ind olfactory (smell).
Adverse effect While parking in the legal sense means leaving the vehicle and nothing more, he said, in the context of "the parking of" it indicates manoeuvring, which can have an adverse affect on the environment.
An operating base is not so much a plot of land as a concept, he said. Because the LA had nor mentioned the visual intrusion of parking, it did not mean that there is no problem visually.
Bakery wins award
NEAL'S Yard Bakery Cooperative has won a National Freight Consortium-sponsored award scheme set up by the London Borough of Camden to find the best new worker co-operative idea. It won 0,000.
John Farrant, director of NFC's Fleetcare division, explained its support. "We have a natural affinity with cooperatives and we see ourselves as being a part of the employee-driven enterprise movement."