Months of hard work are beginning to pay off for Bradford entrepreneur Stuart Green.

The 31-year-old, from Thornton Road, has set up a business to market his invention - and big firms are finally starting to take an interest.

Stuart, who works full time as a car repairer, has designed a special retractable, weatherproof canopy which can be attached to the back of commercial vehicles.

And he says the market potential is enormous.

"I worked in the 24-hour mobile service provider industry for ten years in car windscreen replacement," he said.

"The amount of work that is lost because of bad weather is enormous so I thought about ways of reducing that.

"What I have designed is a mobile garage - it can be put up easily and attached to the back of a van so that the staff can work inside when it's raining or snowing. It is going to save companies a lot of wasted time and lost jobs because of inclement weather."

He said he had already had inquiries from windscreen replacement companies and he was now starting to mailshot other organisations.

"It's a very versatile canopy - it has of lot of potential for public utilities like Yorkshire Water, gas and electricity as well as for market traders and the like."

He estimates the project has cost an estimated £25,000 so far and, apart from help from friend Lee Helmsworth, he has done it all himself.

"Our biggest problem has been marketing the idea because it is so expensive and I have been close to scrapping it - but I will plod on," he said.

He is now in the process of patenting his invention and forming a limited company called Easycover.

And he is hoping a website on the Internet will follow shortly.

At the moment the canopy is being made for him by an Allerton firm but he is hoping eventually to manufacture it himself.

"It's been a nightmare and if I had to go back and do it all again I wouldn't because it has been a very hard slog," he said.

"A lot of doors have been closed in my face - it's very rare you get a "yes".

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.