A KESGRAVE man using his front garden as a car showroom is to be forced to remove the vehicles amid claims they are a hazard to safety.Mark Jarvis, 28, has been selling cars from his garden and the grass verge next to his Main Road house for more than a year.

A KESGRAVE man using his front garden as a car showroom is to be forced to remove the vehicles amid claims they are a hazard to safety.

Mark Jarvis, 28, has been selling cars from his garden and the grass verge next to his Main Road house for more than a year.

But Suffolk Coastal planning officers said the cars parked on the site, at the corner of Main Road and Holly Road, cause a danger to highway safety by encouraging motorists to park, sometimes partly on the road, to view the vehicles that are for sale.

The issue was first brought to the attention of Suffolk Coastal in April 2002 but, despite numerous notices from the council warning him to move, two cars still remain on the verge at the opposite side of Holly Road.

At a meeting of Suffolk Coastal's development control sub-committee last week planners issued an enforcement order enabling officers to take all necessary action to get rid of the cars.

District councillor,Veronica Read, said: "The sooner it is ceased the better. I have seen up to five cars parked there at times with all their boots up as if they were in a garage showroom.

"I have even been approached by other people wanting to know if it is alright to park their cars on the verge because they have seen the others and assume it is now permitted."

There have also been complaints about Mr Jarvis using Holly Road for his limousine hire business. Residents have complained that the cars are regularly parked in the road while he valets them and are concerned about engine oil and grease being washed into the drains.

Mr Jarvis said: "I don't see that they're doing any harm where they are now. I was asked to move them from the front of the house and I've done that.

"They're building on the land behind the verge where the cars are now and I had planned to move them when the houses there were finished, but if I get asked to move them sooner then I will."

Mr Jarvis also said that he has now sold the house in Main Road and no longer lives there. He is currently of no fixed address but stores his limousines at a yard in Woodbridge.

In their report planning officers said: "Although new employment uses are generally supported in the interests of providing jobs and stimulating the local economy, there are occasions when new development, expansion or change of use are not acceptable."

They said that the district council is strongly resisting the change from residential to non-residential use because it would be detrimental to the community and cause a change in the character of the area.