Case No. UKUT-00095-(AAC)

6.The Appellant lodged a notice of appeal to the Upper Tribunal dated 5 October 2021.7.His grounds of appeal were as follows:‘In applying to vary my operator’s licence following a change in home address, the Traffic Commissioner has concluded that my new address is not suitable as an operating centre. Further, they have identified that a third-party site should be recorded as my sole operating centre. I currently have no agreement with the third-party site to effectively operate my business from their premises. I had an agreement with them to store and operate a spare bus as required for which I paid them a ground rental. Having a spare bus became financially unviable so I sold the bus and walked away from the agreement.I wish to appeal that my current home address is more suitable and safer (to operate one minibus from) than operating from the third party site which holds many functions and events and has a high footfall from the general public at many times of the day & night. The third party site has a large car park which can be busy with the general public being dropped off or picked up or parking their own vehicles for functions.I have held my operators licence since March 2016. I had approval for just under 5 years to operate one vehicle (16 passenger minibus) from my home address:…..(A semi detached property). The road on which the premises were located was used by the general public (incl. traffic) as a through road which meant it was more busy at times due to this use. The road also had 2 schools in very close proximity. At key times during the day the road was heavily congested (traffic) and had a heavy footfall. I was able to manage my business around this and there were no safety issues arising as a result of operating from this centre.I moved house on 29 January 2021 to a quieter road with no schools in close proximity and with a much lower footfall from the general public. My new address…..(a detached property) has a larger parking area / drive. Although this property is on an apparent through-road it is not used as such generally as traffic uses 2 bigger nearby roads….As such I believe the new address to be a safer operating centre than my formerly approved address and than the third party premises for the reasons previously outlined.As a professional driver I appreciate that safety of the general public is the highest priority and I exercise caution at the many events & functions for which I provide a service. So whether picking up or dropping off at eg. schools, concerts, race meetings, city centres, including reversing manoeuvres as required, I have not had any safety issues, given the caution I have exercised with regards to driving into (reverse parking) & out of my property, whilst this has a lower level of risk than the many events I undertake, I believe the visibility from the minibus (incl reverse camera) and around the property is more than adequate to safely manage these risks.’8.The Appellant also provided numerous photographs of his parking area / driveway at the front of his house with the vehicle parked in situ together with photographs of his residential street, including aerial views. He also included a sketch plan with relative dimensions of his parking area / drive.