Former South East and Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner Christopher Heaps says it may take a serious accident to make the Department for Transport realise the consequences of switching licensing functions to the VOSA office in Leeds.
"If they are granted to people who have already had them revoked then that could be a consequence. That's really why I don't want my name on a licence that's been granted like that," he says.
A legal challenge would also make the DfT take notice, Heaps
suggests. "It might come to a head if someone objects to a decision that's been wrongly made in Leeds that I have not confirmed." He claims the support of the two other TCs retiring this year - David Dixon and Geoffrey Simms.
None of the three delegated any powers to the VOSA office in Leeds to make the decisions on their behalf. Some bus decisions were made post-November 2006 in Leeds, but Heaps took the step of writing to the parties in question saying those decisions were made outside the law.
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