Public Passenger Vehicles Act 1981

40 Duty to publish particulars of stage carriage services in trial areas

(1) This section applies to any stage carriage service which operates wholly within a trial area; but where a stage carriage service operates only partly within a trial area, so much of it as operates within that area shall for the purposes of this section be treated as a separate stage carriage service to which this section applies.

(2) Before—

(a) starting to provide a new service to which this section applies; or

(b) making, otherwise than temporarily, any changes in a service to which this section applies; or

(c) discontinuing a service to which this section applies,

the operator of the service shall—

(i) give to the local authority concerned, and to every district council in whose area passengers will be or are taken up or set down in the course of the service in question (including, in a case within paragraph (b) above, the service as proposed to be changed), a notice giving the prescribed information about the new service, the changes or the discontinuance, as the case may be; and

(ii) publish in a local newspaper circulating in the locality served or to be served by the service a notice giving the prescribed information about the new service, the changes or the discontinuance, as the case may be.

(3) Subject to subsection (4) below, any notice required by subsection (2) above shall be given or published not later than the prescribed time before the operator does as mentioned in subsection (2)(a), (b) or (c), as the case may be.

(4) Where the operator of a service to which this section applies does as mentioned in subsection (2)(a), (b) or (c) above in consequence of unforeseen circumstances making it impracticable for him to give or, as the case may be, publish in accordance with subsection (3) above a notice required by subsection (2), subsection (3) shall not apply to that notice, but instead the notice in question shall be given or, as the case may be, published (with any necessary modifications) as soon as is practicable.

(5) If, at the time when any area becomes a trial area, there is being provided under a road service licence a stage carriage service which operates wholly or partly within that area, that service shall for the purposes of subsection (1) above be treated as one which operates wholly or, as the case may be, partly within a trial area.

(6) Subject to section 68(1) of this Act, a person who fails to give or publish as required by this section any notice which this section requires him to give or publish shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £200.

(7) Where more than one person falls to be regarded as the operator of a service to which this section applies, the requirements of this section are complied with if the requisite notices are given and published by any of those persons.

(8) In this section—

• " the local authority concerned " has the meaning given by section 38(8) of this Act;

• " operator " includes a prospective operator.