Well not if you want it to remain as a hedge, it gets huge both in height and width.. Our bush is trimmed hard every year but is still about six feet high and more across.

If you can make the border deep enough, you can still plant in front, just leave a gap of 18 inches to 2 feet between the plants and the hedge so you can get in there to cut it back when you need to. Putting some paving slabs in the gap makes it easier.

Maybe put in a few oblique stepping stone pathways, so you can reach the hedge, and fill the spaces in between with annuals and perennials tall enough to hide the paths.

Oh God, I think I'm in trouble. There is no room for a pathway. There goes my dream garden plan . I'm heartbroken

If there is no room for 25 cm stepping stones, it should be possible to simply reach over the bed to prune the hedge--unless there are considerations that I am unaware of, such as a wheelchair?

Maybe all is not lost, I did a bit of googling and it says that a hedge can be just 1 metre wide. If this is the case I can cut it back, which will give me more room. In an exposed area , what is the recommended width for a hedge.

Well a metre's fine for a hedge, but it'll be a bit of a stretch trying to keep Elaeagnus to that width, its a medium to fast grower and it wants to get 4m x 4m - you may need to cut it three times a year.

The rule of thumb is that the width should equal 1/2 of the height--i.e., 1m wide x 2m tall, 1.5m wide by 3m tall, etc.
It also helps to make the top a little narrower than the base. That keeps the hedge full all the way to the base.

Well my dear friends I have good news. I examined my hedge today and was able to cut it back. It is now 1 metre wide and 2 metres high. Thankfully I have only three shrubs to move and I will then have a walkway between them. I can't express how content I am right now. Thank you all so much for your good advice.