Though granting a licence for 18 vehicles to Claremont School (St Leonards), Deputy Traffic Commissioner (DTC) John Baker refused to return four impounded vehicles.
The St Leonards on Sea school had applied for both a national PSV O-Licence and the return of the vehicles at an Eastbourne Public Inquiry.
The vehicles were impounded by DVSA at the school on 6 December 2018 on the grounds that they were being used for hire or reward without a licence.
The school applied for the return of the vehicles on the ground that it did not know the vehicles were being, or had been used, in contravention of the law.
The DTC was told that the school’s management were acting in good faith and with the best intentions towards achieving compliance. They had believed that to be what DVSA had asked of them, when warned about what they were doing, and they had not realised transport activities had to cease until full compliance was achieved.
In reply to the DTC, the school’s transport manager accepted that DVSA’s decision to impound the four vehicles could not be faulted.
