Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The term 'public control', as used in the Council's organisation, embraced various services of a regulative character, mostly exercised by some form of licensing control. Largely unobtrusive in their operation, and producing no spectacular effects, they were all carried out in the public interest and, in some respects, for the protection of the public or certain sections of it.
Their administration was conditioned by trends in the legislative provisions under which they were operated, by shifts and changes in social usages, and by the development of the Council's policies towards the matters to which they related.
In 1938 the number of vehicle licences issued by the Council was 601,300. In 1962 the number was 999,750, and the license duty had risen from £5 million to £13 million. The introduction of the test of road-worthiness for private cars and motor cycles made it necessary for the Council to be satisfied, before issuing licences, that the legal requirements had been complied with. Tightening of traffic control and regulation of car parking increased requests from traffic authorities for information about registered vehicles and their owners.
About 365,000 driving licences were in force in London in 1938. In 1963 there were over 1,000,000. In 1935 a new compulsory test for all new drivers was introduced, and only a provisional licence was issued before the test was passed. The Council could refuse a licence or revoke an existing licence in cases of disability likely to cause a driver to be dangerous. Additionally the Road Traffic Act, 1962, increased the number of offences for which disqualification was obligatory.