A woman who parked a double-decker bus on her drive to turn it into a cafe is being forced to move it after her neighbours complained.
Wendy Salmon put the vehicle outside her home at the end of her leafy cul-de-sac in a Surrey street temporarily to renovate it – but has now been given an ‘ASBO’ type order and told to remove it after neighbours said it ‘ruins the ambience’.
She has accused neighbours of ‘rallying’ the others on the street against her by complaining it was an eyesore.
And despite the council accepting she was ‘not breaking any laws’, she has been hit with a CPN, formerly known as an ASBO, and ordered to remove it by June 20 following a bitter two-year legal battle.
Mother-of-two Wendy, 55, who runs a pub, described the situation as ‘ridiculous’ and accused neighbours of being ‘curtain twitchers’ who ‘act like they own the street.’
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She said: ‘The wording of the CPN was that it was ‘upsetting the ambience of the local area’. Now no one speaks to me. All my neighbours completely ignore me.’
Wendy said she’s being treated like a ‘criminal’ even though she has ‘never committed a crime in her life’.
‘The whole thing is just ridiculous. There is no way it is impacting or bothering them. It is just snobbery, pure and simple.’
The street in Camberley is lined with four-bedroom detached properties with an average house price of around £600k.
Wendy’s house is at the end of the cul-de-sac, and she said her drive was out of the view of most of the residents who complained.
Problems started in March 2023 when she bought the Dennis double-decker bus for £6,000 from a friend’s brother and parked it in her private driveway to renovate it.
Wendy had planned to convert the bus into a bar or cafe to offer private parties and events.
‘I wanted this to be an investment for my children, giving them an opportunity to work for themselves as they both have a passion for food,’ she added.
‘Within 15 minutes of it being parked, the man next door appeared to ask if it was a permanent fixture. Within another hour he returned to say that there would be complaints. Over the next few days, his wife spoke to me and asked various questions. I told her that I was renovating the bus and that I hoped it would be completed in three months.’
The bus was then reported as ‘abandoned’, which resulted in a visit from a member of Surrey Heath Borough Council’s Corporate Enforcement Department.
The council initially confirmed via email that there are no planning restrictions and that no further action would be taken.
However, two weeks later, the council contacted Wendy to say that a further complaint had been received from another neighbour, whom she claims is a ‘friend’ of the initial complainant.
Wendy received an email from the council advising her to SORN the vehicle and complete the renovation as soon as possible.
She added: ‘Yet a few months later, I received a Community Protection Warning (CPW) from the council. It said that if I can’t comply with the order, I could get a fixed penalty notice, be prosecuted, or the bus could be destroyed or disposed of.
‘A few months after this, the CPN arrived. I had no choice but to appeal.’
Wendy said limited funds meant she had to represent herself in court, and she reluctantly dropped the appeal after getting the wording of the CPN changed.
She added: We went in front of the judge, I explained that the only reason I was dropping the appeal was because it was making me ill, with my family, including my 79-year-old father, having been bullied by my neighbours.
‘I don’t know what the future holds, but I do not like my previously loved home, I don’t want to leave the house as I feel bullied, neighbours no longer speak to me or my partner.
‘I have had over a year of sleepless nights, stress and anxiety. My dream of restoring the bus is no longer something that I want to do. It is the council and my neighbour who have upset the ambience in the local area, not me.’
Surrey Heath Council said in a statement: ‘We are unable to comment on this case at present.’
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