Barker Gotelee

A number of applicants for new licences and variations of existing Operators’ Licences have been experiencing frustration concerning the requirement that an advertisement be placed in a newspaper circulating in the area where the relevant operating centre is situated.

There is little guidance from the Office of the Traffic Commissioner for operators, save to point out that advertisements in free-ad papers are not acceptable and also the requirement that the advertisements have a particular wording (a template being found with the relevant application forms on the VOSA website).

The Central Licensing Unit in Leeds are sending out letters suggesting that the statutory advertisements in some cases are not acceptable and that re-advertising must take place.  The basis for this appears to be an alleged lack of newspaper circulation in certain areas and the problems seem to occur where the localities of the operating centres do not appear on the list of towns on national newspaper circulation databases.

It must be the case, of course, that there may be very little newspaper circulation in certain locations, unless national newspapers are used for the advert.  However, the frustration experienced by operators in these cases is where it is known by the operator locally that the relevant newspaper is widely sold in newsagents, petrol stations, village shops, etc but this is not accepted by Leeds.

Our approach in this is to object to Leeds’ refusal to accept the advertisements in each case where there is clear evidence the advertisement is acceptable, producing maps and evidence of telephone calls to newsagents etc.

No formal advice to operators has been issued, to our knowledge, and if it is the case that the Office of the Traffic Commissioner intends to apply a rule that there should be a certain level of local circulation for an advertisement to be acceptable then this should be made clear on the VOSA website and in the Department of Transport materials.  Even then, it is unclear how this might operate - in one case we have been able to demonstrate that the newspaper circulates in towns and villages which simply do not appear on the National Newspaper Distribution records.

When placing advertisements we have always checked with the newspaper that the paper circulates in the area of the operating centre.  In all the cases we have dealt with where there has been objection from Leeds the newspaper office had already confirmed to us the paper circulated in that area and knew the area post codes within which it circulates its papers.

The moral of this is to be circumspect about which newspaper is used.  It may be advisable to use a local newspaper but even then there may be a problem if circulations are low meaning that there are also difficulties with the national newspaper circulation information. 

Tim Ridyard

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