RESIDENTS may have seen a military tank rumbling its way through Bromsgrove town centre on Thursday, but not to fear – it was only Paul.

In 1993, the Advertiser, then Messenger, told readers about a family man from Bromsgrove who had taken up an unconventional hobby of fixing up scrapped military tanks.

Now aged 60, Paul Donovan has become somewhat of a local celebrity, and his neighbours in Stoke Heath no longer flutter an eyelid when they see an armoured vehicle thundering past.

The self-employed chauffer took his latest project, a CVRT Sabre, out for a test-drive on April 6, stopping for petrol at the BP garage in Birmingham Road.

The 85 gallon fuel tanks cost £500 to fill, but Paul says the costs are worth seeing people’s reactions.

Bromsgrove Advertiser:

“I don’t drive them around that much,” said Paul. “They just sit on the drive mostly. My house has become a bit of a local landmark – people drive up and down to take a look.

“The neighbours have got used to them so they tend not to notice them parked on the drive, but they do bring a smile to peoples’ faces, seeing something crazy like a tank driving down the street.”

His last renovation, a military vehicle from the Iraq War that had been left to rust for 15 years, was bought by a Canadian collector for £25,000.

Paul said: “I paid £5,000 for the last one originally, then spent £6,000 on spare parts – but it took four years of my spare time to fix it up, so it’s not a very viable business, but it is a lot of fun.

“I think it’s good that people like myself and my acquaintances maintain the history. The army just scrap them and, if nobody bothered to restore them, future generations wouldn’t have anything to look at and see what the tanks used to look like.”

In the last 25 years, Paul’s vehicles have been used in the town’s Poppy Appeal collections and some have even appeared on television.

To follow Paul’s renovations online, visit alvissabre.blogspot.co.uk or watch more video's on Paul's Youtube channel.