Floralia’s Road Service Permits to PG are Quashed
Dean Barrow
According to Senior Counsel Barrow, Floralia was given preferential treatment by the Ministry of Transport when it was awarded the road service permits for the respective runs to PG and Independence. With the licenses being cancelled, new applications will have to be submitted by bus companies that are interested in taking up the runs. Barrow says it was a complete legal victory.
Dean Barrow, SC, Attorney-at-Law
“Well it was a clean sweep for us. We got every order for which we prayed with the result that the permits to Floralia have been quashed. The Transport Board must go back and give a proper and fair consideration to all applications. We were saying that the decision in favor of Floralia was done without proper notice, violating the statutory procedure but also without giving others who were interested a chance. The decision means that in going back to do a proper and fair consideration now, the Transport Board will have to start all over. Notices have to be published giving alerting the bus owners and members of the general public when meetings will be held. New applications will have to be filed by Floralia and others and so that will take some time. The judge also awarded damages to our clients for losses they have suffered in consequence of Floralia. In the case of James Bus Line, taking away their business or certainly interfering with their business. What the court did do, interestingly enough and sensibly enough, was to say, “Listen, clearly Floralia is now without any legal permission to run. I will suspend the effect of the judgment, which is to quash their permits, until December, so as not to inconvenience the public. Clearly, if the decision took effect immediately, Floralia would have to stop running and nobody could get a permit to fill the Floralia runs any time soon because of the process that requires three publications of an application in the gazette. So she did that and I repeat that that was very, very sensible of the judge.”
