A Bristol family have been told they cannot have a drive across a green verge outside their home – yet neighbours have had driveways across the same strip of land for years.

Jason Lavender, who lives in Highridge Road, Bishopsworth, with his wife, Joy, and their children, has been fighting for a driveway for three years.

He believes it would be safer for other road users and pedestrians if he was allowed to pull his van off the road each night.

But he said he has been flatly refused permission by the city council to create a driveway across the verge because it is common land and cannot be built on.

Mr Lavender, 32, a fruit machine engineer, said: "It doesn't make sense that I cannot have a drive yet all my neighbours have got one and have had one without a problem for years.

"They are backing me for a drive because it would be easier for them to pull out on to a busy road without having to try to see around my van.

"There's a bus stop opposite our house where young children queue for a bus each morning and there's a busy junction nearby.

"I've been on to the council about this but I've just met a brick wall."

He said he had even complained to the Local Government Ombudsman but this had also failed to solve the issue.

Mr Lavender said: "I decided to do everything the proper way by applying for planning permission.

"But I was advised that the grass was common land and would need the permission of the landowners, the city council. I asked for permission but was refused."

He said he was going to ignore the ruling but signs appeared – one right outside his house – which warn that no unauthorised parking on Highridge Green is allowed.

Mr Lavender said he was going to leave his van on the verge on one occasion but a council official came up to him and warned him that his van was liable to be clamped or towed away.

He said his neighbours had dropped kerbs which meant the council had accepted that they could have driveways outside their homes.

He said: "I'm only after a four foot wide strip of grass so we can park off the road. We even got a petition together which was signed by our neighbours but it was just ignored."

Council spokeswoman Kate Hartas said: "Some immediate neighbours obtained planning permission over 10 years ago.

"The council is landowner, and at the request of local people, and with the support of local councillors, we tightened up the land ownership procedures for the entire road.

"All recent applications have been subject to landowner's permission and have been refused."