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iv) I have then asked myself whether there is any great harm going to be done to the interests of the WBC or the present licensees, or potential applicants for licences if Mr Kelly is granted five licences for vehicles, the subject of his 1991 application, now. The WBC says he may not use the vehicles for which those five licences would be granted. They say that he may sell those vehicles, as it seems he has his existing vehicles with licences. That as it seems to me is not a valid objection. He was always free to sell his vehicles with "plates" and if the WBC had considered his application when they should have done the vehicles which would have been granted licences pursuant to the 1991 application would have been amongst the vehicles which he is free to sell at the present time. The real concern of the WBC, and indeed of the public, must be that if five licences are granted in respect of these vehicles, the subject of a 1991 application, the effect will be to have elderly vehicles plying their trade. The question is whether there is some danger in allowing that to happen. As I understand the position there are existing old vehicles plying their trade, they being allowed to do so despite the change in policy in 2002 because they were vehicles licensed prior to that change of policy. Even in relation to those vehicles there are requirements that the same should pass an MOT test twice a year, and the WBC have applied conditions in relation to those vehicles and there is no reason why similar conditions should not be applied to vehicles granted a licence pursuant to the 1991 application. It seems to me that five further vehicles more than three years old, but to which conditions already applied to similar vehicles will apply, cannot be said to be likely to damage the interests of the WBC or other licensees or indeed other applicants for licences nor to be dangerous from the public point of view.
_________________ Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. George Carlin
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