Roads Act, 1920

Local licensing fees to cease to be chargeable.

14.(1) As from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and twenty-one, any fees or charges, by whatever name called, payable under any general or special Act to any county council, local or police authority in respect of the licensing of any vehicle (other than a tramcar) shall cease to be payable.

(2) Any person who at the commencement of this Act is the holder of any licence issued by any county council or local or police authority in respect of any vehicle (other than a tramcar), being a licence in respect of which a fee or charge exceeding five shillings has been paid, or to whom a general identification mark has been assigned under proviso (b) to subsection (4) of section two of the Motor Car Act, 1903, shall be entitled, on making an application in the prescribed manner to the prescribed county council, local or police authority, to obtain a repayment in respect of the fee or charge paid by him for the licence or mark at the rate of one-twelfth of the amount so paid in respect of every complete month for which the licence or mark continues in force after the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and twenty, and any sums paid under this provision by a county council shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as expenses incurred by the council in the levying of the duties, and any sums so paid by a local or police authority shall be repaid to the authority out of the Road Fund.

(3) Where, upon application for a licence to ply for hire with an omnibus, the licensing authority either refuses to grant a licence or grants a licence subject to conditions, in either case the applicant shall have a right of appeal to the Minister of Transport from the decision of the licensing authority, and the Minister shall have power to make such order thereon as he thinks fit, and such order shall be binding upon the licensing authority.

An order made by the Minister under this subsection shall be final and not subject to appeal to any court, and shall, on the application of the Minister, be enforceable by writ of mandamus.

For the purpose of this subsection, the expression “omnibus” includes every omnibus, char-a-banc, waggonette, brake, stage coach, or other carriage plying for hire or used to carry passengers at separate fares.