Family who live in middle of roundabout and refuse to sell home speak out

A family who live in a house that's situated in the middle of a roundabout and refuse to budge have said that it 'does get busy at times'.

If you were to drive down the A525, then you might notice that that the roundabout by the Denbigh bypass appears better kept than most roundabouts in the UK.

Let's not get to ranking roundabouts like we do service stations, especially when the correct answer there is either Gloucester or Tebay, but the reason why this roundabout looks so nice is because there's always people there to look after it.

64 years ago, David John and Eirian Howatson moved into a bungalow that very definitely did not have a roundabout built around it when they got the place - but in the following decades, that was to change.

Despite living on a roundabout, the family says they don't get bothered by the noise much (North Wales Live)

The bypass was completed and then in the late 70s plans for a roundabout were submitted, and since the family refused to budge from their home it was simply built around them, with it being completed in 1980.

Years later the Howatsons still own the home on the roundabout, and 64-year-old Clwyd Howatson spoke about having lived there for most of his life.

He said: "We don't have to worry about any neighbours, but life on the roundabout does get busy at times, especially when the grandchildren stay over.

"I've lived on the roundabout for over 40 years so it's pretty much all I know. We'd lived here for 20 years before that as well so it's been in the family for a long time."

One of the main downsides is that delivery drivers often have trouble believing they're supposed to drive onto the roundabout (North Wales Live)

Of course, when you live on a roundabout there are bound to be a lot of questions about the practicalities, and Clwyd said the first thing everyone always asks is 'how do you get to your house?', with him saying it was 'fairly self-explanatory with the drive at the bottom'.

"The second is always: 'is it noisy?' which it isn't really," the roundabout resident explained.

"I'd say it's like living by any road but it's not that bad, we have double glazing so it's not something that bothers us and the road only gets really busy at peak times which is only a few times a day.

"Getting off the roundabout on the other hand can be a bit of a challenge. When people are on a roundabout they don't expect someone to come out of the roundabout itself so we do get a few double-takes.

"It can be a bit awkward as well if someone lets you go because someone could be coming up on the other lane, but we don't really have any issues with it, we just tend to wait until it's a bit quieter which is most of the time."

If they need to go out, they 'just tend to wait until it's a bit quieter' (North Wales Live)

What is a bit tricky is getting things delivered to the house as many drivers struggle to realise that the place they're supposed to go is located on the roundabout itself and their SatNav isn't playing up.

If delivery drivers haven't been round before they can often end up going to other nearby houses before being told 'we're not by the roundabout, we're on it' by Clwyd.

Roundabouts can be a tad dangerous to live on, what with the danger of someone crashing into your home, but according to the family they've been fortunate to avoid anything serious. Though in the early days when the roundabout was first built, some drivers would manage to go the wrong way around it.

As for what the future holds, the family was not planning on moving out and they reckon they'll still have the place for the foreseeable.