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Manchester Met faces legal action over contracting out recovery service

police are on recovery run
Manchester Met faces legal action over contracting out recovery serviceThe Road Rescue Recovery Association is one week from telling its solicitors to prepare a case against police in Greater Manchester, where a 15 month AA run pilot scheme began on 6 February.

RRRA chairman Peter Cosby told Motor Trader that an unnamed operator is prepared to be the focus of a test case, which will contend that the police have no authority to organise recovery except in cases of abandoned or stolen vehicles or those blocking a roadway.
If it can be shown that police in Manchester are using the AA to secure recovery services in any other cases, then the legality of all contracted out schemes could be questioned. Both the RRRA and the Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators believe increasing AA and RAC involvement will cut most operators out of police work. The AA currently manages recovery for 11 police forces.
In January the RRRA lost an application for judicial review of a similar scheme in Leicestershire and Gwent because the case was brought too late.
RRRA counsel believed the point of law had been conceded. Cosby said that a case against Manchester will definitely be brought before the three month deadline expires.
One Manchester recovery operator, Jim Sharples of Sharples Brothers, a Ford retail dealer in west Houghton, told Motor Trader that being turned down for the AA scheme means having to lay off four men after serving on the police recovery rota for 50 years.
He is scheduled to meet with his MP, Tom Sackville, to discuss his grievances.
RECOVERY operators are turning their legal fire on Manchester in a bid to stop police forces contracting out recovery management.by DAN THISDELL

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