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Language: en-GB

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The road behind me is closed. There's been a landslip, and that's a problem because it's pretty

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much the only road that connects the villages of Kelston – and a dozen others besides – to the

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picturesque city of Bath. There is a detour, but it's 14 miles long, and the council won't be

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able to open this road for a few months yet. But there is a solution, and it's quite an

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astonishing one. This is the Kelston Toll Road, and it was set up not by the council, but

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by...well, this man.

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—We were in the local pub one night after the road had been closed for about 3 months. We were

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talking to the local farmer who owns the land here. My wife suggested that he should put down

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some stone and maybe set up a toll road and charge people to go over it. We had gone home, we

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carved the field, we built the road, we did it without planning permission.

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—As you might expect, the council are not initially happy about this, but here's the thing: Mike

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is not breaking the law. In the U.K., not getting planning permission — the U.S. translation

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would be "violating zoning laws" — but in the U.K., not getting planning permission is not a

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crime in itself. You're only breaking the law when the council notices, files an enforcement

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order against you, and then you refuse to undo what you've done.

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—We thought that they would say, "well look, you know, get on and do it, this is great, you've

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got our full support." They didn't come up with that and they've actually made us apply for

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retrospective planning permission.

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—The council did have some good reasons. According to their statement, they weren't sure if

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construction and driving up there would affect the landslip down there. But they seem to have

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taken the risk, and it's paid off. Mind you, they're not the only ones taking a fairly big risk on this road.

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—My wife and I have got a lovely little cottage in Kelston down by the river, but we put our

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house up as a guarantee with the road builders to say, "look, we want to build this road. If it

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doesn't work out, we will sell our house and we'll pay you, and it's the only way we can make

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this happen." They're a local firm and they agreed to it. We shook hands, and they sent three

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guys over and they built this road in 10 days. We've got to get 150,000 cars over to get our

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money back, but we're well on the way — we've had 100,000. The public's reaction has been —

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(MOTORCYCLE REVS) — it has been astonishing. The public's reaction has been astonishing.

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—It's even made it onto Google Maps. So there you go, the Kelston Toll Road. Something you might

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not have known about, not just because of its existence, but also the fact that it's still

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running, and it looks it will be for a few months yet.

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