A company that refused to appear before the traffic commissioner (TC) at a Leeds public inquiry (PI) because it was 200 miles away and “ridiculous” has had its licence application refused.
Armson Engineering was called before TC Nick Denton after director Thomas Armstrong failed to declare in his application that he had been the director of another company that was now in liquidation.
Armstrong also did not declare that Armson Engineering had a previous licence application refused owing to the lack of a valid advertisement.
Company secretary Karen Armstrong wrote to the Office of the TC explaining that Thomas had been a PAYE employee of Pipetawse and not the owner, so they considered this did not need to be mentioned.
TC Denton decided to call the operator to a PI and in his written decision he said he had additional concerns that the company might already be operating a truck.
However, the company secretary emailed the TC’s office the day before the hearing to say neither of the Armstrongs would be attending:
“The email described the need to travel 200 miles to and from the inquiry and waste fuel and time as ‘ridiculous’,” said Denton. “Ms Armstrong said the company had now purchased two smaller vehicles which fell outside the operator licensing regime and ‘do not require your rude questionings’.
The TC concluded: “The dismissive and contemptuous tone that the company has adopted towards the inquiry do it no service.”
