Destroyed Log Book

Sir,

I should like to have the opportunity, through the columns of your excellent magazine, of passing on my recent experience with the licensing department and the log book of a 1938 Morris commercial van which I own.

At the end of March I sent the necessary papers to County Hall, Maidstone, to relicense the van for 12 months. In due course the insurance certificate, MoT and excise disc arrived but no log book. I had not asked for the log book to be returned as I understood that the Computer Centre at Swansea was only dealing with vehicles that have a suffix in the registration number.

When I rang Maidstone they were most helpful but explained that as I had asked for 12 months’ tax the log book was automatically sent to Swansea.

I wrote to the VLC and have just received a photocopy of a microfilm of the log book which had been destroyed.

So if you want to retain some of the history of your vehicle make sure that the local licensing authority do not get their hands on it so that it can be fed to the computer at Swansea.

I also have a 1938 MG SA saloon, the log book of which 1 intend to be most careful about.

Gravesend, M. G. Turvill.