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Number Plates Articles and Stories by Noel Woodall Car registrations, car marks, cherished numbers, personalised registrations, distinctive marks or merely car numbers - call them what you will, they now form a flourishing industry. The Treasury has benefited by tens if not hundreds of millions of pounds. No longer content with just the transfer fees from these numbers, the DVLA has entered the selling market with much gusto. Its auctions, initially proposed as two or three times a year events (of acceptable classic numbers) have developed into almost monthly auctions of the most dreadful combinations imaginable, and then of course the DVLA also offers a daily telephone service for present day issues. For me, the interest in personalised numbers began back in 1962 when driving into Blackpool, I saw BB 4 on a car. Curious to know who owned it, I went to the local library only to be told that there were no books about car numbers available. I decided to remedy this situation and right away sent out 2,000 circulars to television celebrities, town halls, embassies and most of the entrants in "Who's who". The response was amazing. Owners had been waiting sixty years to tell someone about their choice of number. I quickly learned that FLY 1 was owned by Lord Brabazon, who held the first pilot's certificate. An estate agent owned EST 8 and CUR 10 was owned by an antiques dealer. SPY 999 was being run by the author of the "I SPY" series of books. Hundreds of other exciting revelations began to pour in, and so the first book in the series of "Car Numbers" was published in 1962 and we coined the words "autonumerology" and "autonumerologist". My bonus in all this has been the huge numbers of wonderfully interesting letters, many from celebrity owners, which I have received over the past forty years. Many of these I have kept and filed away and now have a considerable collection of celebrities' signatures. By 1971 the interest in personalised registrations had reached such a peak that a number of number plate dealers got together to form the Personalised Numbers Dealers Association with Dave Kempson doing most of the ground work. The main objective of this organisation was to formalise a standard of trading. Two years later the P.N.D.A. changed its name to the Cherished Numbers Dealers Association. The Institute of Registration Agents and Dealers has also been formed, and I have the privilege of being its chairperson. Things were going smoothly for owners and dealers until 1976 when the Swansea dispute tried to stop any future transfers. Following public campaigns, various rallies and even protest marches, the transfer system was finally re-instated in 1977, but unfortunately with many inane rules. For example, it became necessary for a number to have been on a vehicle for at least nine months before it could be transferred. Both vehicles had to be owned (on paper) by the same person and both vehicles had to have an M.O.T. It was during this dispute that the Registration Numbers Club was formed, initially to combat bureaucratic mayhem. It has now evolved into a strong and friendly association of enthusiasts. They produce a quarterly magazine and organise one of the few remaining number plate rallies each year. Everyone interested in personalised numbers would undoubtedly find membership in this club well worthwhile. Today the DVLA works more harmoniously with dealers and invited
them to a meeting to discuss the introduction of the current system
of registrations which started in August, 2001. At that time everyone
was convinced that finding saleable combinations would be virtually
impossible, but there have been some notable exceptions such as
DE51 RED, this being one of the first to be bought. The Treasury
must still be smiling. This article first appeared in the book 'Fanatical About Number Plates' by Ruby Speechley. It is reproduced here by kind permission of the publisher. |
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