A man who built a blockade outside his home to stop people parking there says he is now "famous" and people are travelling miles to see him. Derek Woodacre made headlines for the roadblock, which has since been removed and now says people are coming from far and wide to see the area for themselves.
Derek began a battle with parents doing school drop-offs at a primary school near his home in Mosley Common, Wigan, Greater Manchester, six years ago. He has become notorious locally but now says that has erupted, with Derek, 65, saying that he has had people "in tears of laughter" telling them about his plans for the future.
“People drive past Manchester and are coming to see me and burst out laughing,” he told the M.E.N. “They are in tears hearing about what I have planned for the future. It has gone mad in the area."
Back in July Derek’s homemade measures to stop parking were removed, but that has only toughened his resolve to get the road certified as unadopted. Derek makes his own gnomes and has even created ones supporting the Ukraine appeal.
If the road becomes unadopted and he is able to reinstall a blockade, he plans on making more gnomes to go on the road in what he calls ‘Lake Gnomo’, combining his love of gnomes and Lake Como - an extension of what he calls ‘Gnome Man’s Land’ in his front garden.
People across Greater Manchester and further afield have been visiting Derek and talking to him about this conflict, he claims. Despite this newfound popularity, Derek is not number one on all of his neighbours' Christmas card lists.
These neighbours told the Manchester Evening News that his antics had led to ‘sleepless nights’ and the barricade had become so large it got to the point where emergency vehicles and bin men couldn’t get through to the end of the street. They called him ‘antagonising’ and ‘stressful’ but Derek believes these neighbours against him are only few in number, and claims he 'just does not care anymore' about their opinions.
Derek even created a 'suggestion box' where he plans on laminating the responses he gets. The technical writer is an avid collector and managed to come across planters which he put on the road alongside the speed restrictions to give them weight. But he says that he didn’t get the money from the other residents for his plans which is why went solo in his ambitions.
Explaining why he constructed the barricade in the first place, he told the M.E.N back in July: “I moved here five years ago and this is an unadopted road so the council is not responsible for it. When I moved in I thought what the hell is this.
“The first week I saw a lot of people parking from the school. I felt a lot of abuse from parents when I told them they couldn't park there.
“We have to pay to repair the road and it costs thousands. I met every resident on the road and they told me about all the problems.
“There have been assaults and property damage and we wanted to get this sorted. I said this is not acceptable and said there is no point in repairing the road if we can’t stop people parking here.
“People who were walking past them were admiring them. They were saying ‘wow’.
“They [Wigan Council] tried to force me to remove the stuff from the highway two months ago. That is when I got the notice.
“Then it was July 19 when they came to remove it.”
