Huge parking row erupts between neighbours as man erects barricade

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Derek Woodacre, 65, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, came up with several creative ways to deter drivers from parking on the street outside his home. However, he was ordered to take his creations down earlier this summer.

Mr Woodacre’s feud with parents parking on his street started a few years ago.

Since then, he has become a local attraction with people coming from all over the place to see his barricades.

Mr Woodacre told Manchester Evening News: “People drive past Manchester and are coming to see me and burst out laughing.

“They are in tears hearing about what I have planned for the future. It has gone mad in the area.”

The 65-year-old’s most recent efforts, however, were removed in July after a row erupted between him and his neighbours.

Some local residents said that Mr Woodacre’s 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 also called him “antagonising” and “stressful”. In response, Mr Woodacre said that he “does not care about their opinion” and that there aren’t many neighbours that are against his barricades.

The 65-year-old’s latest creation involves homemade gnomes and ones made in support of the Ukraine appeal.

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If the road becomes certified as an unadopted road, with the council not responsible for it, Mr Woodacre claimed he plans on making even more figurines in what he calls ‘Lake Gnomo’.

The display will involve combining his love of gnomes and Lake Como – an extension of what he calls ‘Gnome Man’s Land’ in his front garden.

Mr Woodacre has also 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.

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He says that he didn’t receive any money from the other residents for his plans, forcing him to go solo in his ambitions.

Explaining why he constructed the barricade in the first place, he said 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.”

Mr Woodacre continued: “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.”

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