Street furniture design company Clear Channel Adshel was recently involved in a roadside mix up, leaving a Gloucester man stunned as he returned to his home in Hempsted only to find his private driveway blocked by a shining new bus shelter.<\/p>\n
Steve Elvey, 30, who lives in the house on Mayfair Close, Hempsted, with his wife Esther, 29, was shocked when he returned home on June 22nd<\/sup> and found the new shelter directly in front of his driveway. He is reported to have commented:<\/p>\n \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I went to the Council and they said it had been put up by Adshel so there was lots of to\u00e2\u20ac\u201cing and fro\u00e2\u20ac\u201cing to try and get it sorted. I then decided I had had enough and so I decided if they wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take it down I would.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n Police were called in reaction to the ruckus and Mr Elvey, reputedly an electrical engineer, showed them his access rights.<\/p>\n Some eye witness reports claim the incident even caused a minor crash as extensive rubber-necking took place.<\/p>\n Within 24 hours the bus shelter had gone again, but sources indicate this was not an isolated incident. Three years earlier, in September 2008, Brighton and Hove City council instigated the extension of an existing bus shelter in Portslade, Brighton. The ramp, steps and low brick wall required to make it disability friendly were built directly across a private driveway, once again blocking access to the startled residents within.<\/p>\n If a lesson may be learnt from this, it is surely that no driveway is entirely safe from overzealous bureaucrats.<\/p>\n 29th June 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"