An 82-year-old staunch Brexit supporter is travelling the length of the country to remove “hated” EU metric road signs.
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs in 2000 while working as an agent for then UKIP leader Jeffrey Titford.
Mr Norman was incensed after discovering EU plans to turn the country “completely metric” ahead of Britain’s transition into the Eurozone and set about trying to keep as many signs as possible in imperial measures.
The retired TV and radio repair man has since changed or removed nearly 2,000 road signs to date.
SIGN OF THE TIMES Staunch Brexit supporter travels length of the country to remove “hated” EU metric road signs
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs 16 years ago and has since changed or removed nearly 2,000
By Emma Glanfield
24th November 2016
The Sun
AN 82-YEAR-OLD staunch Brexit supporter is travelling the length of the country to remove “hated” EU metric road signs.
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs in 2000 while working as an agent for then UKIP leader Jeffrey Titford.
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs 16 years ago and since has changed or removed nearly 2,000
Mr Norman was incensed after discovering EU plans to turn the country “completely metric” ahead of Britain’s transition into the Eurozone and set about trying to keep as many signs as possible in imperial measures.
The retired TV and radio repair man has since changed or removed nearly 2,000 road signs to date.
He has also set up a group of antic-metric campaigners – dubbed “metric martyrs” – who aim to “combat unwanted enforcement of metric measures in Britain”.
It comes after campaigners claimed that shops should be allowed to go back to selling fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces following the Brexit vote.
Mr Norman’s resistance group, named Active Resistance to Metrication, carries step ladders and wears yellow jackets and helmets when they remove signs across the country.
On his first trip to Northampton in 2000, Mr Norman removed six signs and dumped them in a ditch 10 miles away.
He claims his actions are legal because the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994 states that distance signs must only be in miles and yards.
He said: “Because they were illegal you didn’t need to be a council official to remove them so long as you told the council where you’d put them.”
His work to remove all metric signs in the country is still ongoing and Mr Norman, a longstanding UKIP member, travelled 20 miles to Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, to remove a sign six months ago.
Despite suffering from tremors, the pensioner – who lives with his wife Kay, 74 – is now planning to target a sign in Essex when the weather improves.
Retired repair man Derek Norman began his campaign in 2000 while working as an agent for then UKIP leader Jeffrey Titford
He said: “We haven’t finished because there are still some metric signs. We have lookouts who tell us where they are and we go round and either remove them or cover them up.
“We will be finished when we have got rid of them all.”
But the group’s crusade hasn’t been without challenges.
Fellow campaigner Tony Bennett, a solicitor, was arrested seven times for removing signs and charged with stealing road signs and criminal damage.
He avoided charges in all but one case by citing the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994, which mandate the use of imperial measures for roads.
However, he was convicted on one charge but appealed and won – allowing the group to continue removing the signs.
Mr Norman revealed that after the ruling most councils backed down apart from Portsmouth City Council which said it would change the signs back to metric.
However, with the referendum result seeing Britain vote to leave the EU it seems the future is brighter for Mr Norman.
He said: “We have never been anti-European. We go on holiday to Europe and the people and cuisine are lovely. We have always been against the European Union taking us over.
“My first feelings about that came when Ted Heath took us into the Common Market but at the same time gave away our independence.
“I remember when Harold Wilson sent out leaflets that went around the country saying that joining the Common Market will not mean that they will be making our laws.
“That turned out to be a complete lie.”
He claims his actions are legal because the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994 states that distance signs must only be in miles and yards
Mr Norman became active in UKIP when the party was in its infancy and created its East of England chapter in 1995.
He said: “I was an electrical engineer and I was quite happy to use metric units for physics, chemistry and science but I do not see why they should make our everyday life metric.
“If you buy a loaf of bread why does it have to be in metric? So from that point we were opposed to it.
“We also found out that local councils were going to change all the road signs in the country illegally.
“We saw a solicitor and he went through all the road regulations and found that it wasn’t legal to put up metric signs.”
During a recent UKIP Bonfire Night party, the group celebrated by burning an effigy of Ted Heath – the Conservative prime minister who in 1973 brought the UK into the European Community, the EU’s predecessor.
Mr Norman said: “I couldn’t believe that we actually had the chance to leave the EU. I worked so hard in my own time. I won’t know what to do.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22529...country-to-remove-hated-eu-metric-road-signs/
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs in 2000 while working as an agent for then UKIP leader Jeffrey Titford.
Mr Norman was incensed after discovering EU plans to turn the country “completely metric” ahead of Britain’s transition into the Eurozone and set about trying to keep as many signs as possible in imperial measures.
The retired TV and radio repair man has since changed or removed nearly 2,000 road signs to date.
SIGN OF THE TIMES Staunch Brexit supporter travels length of the country to remove “hated” EU metric road signs
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs 16 years ago and has since changed or removed nearly 2,000
By Emma Glanfield
24th November 2016
The Sun
AN 82-YEAR-OLD staunch Brexit supporter is travelling the length of the country to remove “hated” EU metric road signs.
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs in 2000 while working as an agent for then UKIP leader Jeffrey Titford.
Pensioner Derek Norman began taking down metric signs 16 years ago and since has changed or removed nearly 2,000Mr Norman was incensed after discovering EU plans to turn the country “completely metric” ahead of Britain’s transition into the Eurozone and set about trying to keep as many signs as possible in imperial measures.
The retired TV and radio repair man has since changed or removed nearly 2,000 road signs to date.
He has also set up a group of antic-metric campaigners – dubbed “metric martyrs” – who aim to “combat unwanted enforcement of metric measures in Britain”.
It comes after campaigners claimed that shops should be allowed to go back to selling fruit and vegetables in pounds and ounces following the Brexit vote.
Mr Norman’s resistance group, named Active Resistance to Metrication, carries step ladders and wears yellow jackets and helmets when they remove signs across the country.
On his first trip to Northampton in 2000, Mr Norman removed six signs and dumped them in a ditch 10 miles away.
He claims his actions are legal because the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994 states that distance signs must only be in miles and yards.
He said: “Because they were illegal you didn’t need to be a council official to remove them so long as you told the council where you’d put them.”
His work to remove all metric signs in the country is still ongoing and Mr Norman, a longstanding UKIP member, travelled 20 miles to Bassingbourn, Cambridgeshire, to remove a sign six months ago.
Despite suffering from tremors, the pensioner – who lives with his wife Kay, 74 – is now planning to target a sign in Essex when the weather improves.
Retired repair man Derek Norman began his campaign in 2000 while working as an agent for then UKIP leader Jeffrey Titford He said: “We haven’t finished because there are still some metric signs. We have lookouts who tell us where they are and we go round and either remove them or cover them up.
“We will be finished when we have got rid of them all.”
But the group’s crusade hasn’t been without challenges.
Fellow campaigner Tony Bennett, a solicitor, was arrested seven times for removing signs and charged with stealing road signs and criminal damage.
He avoided charges in all but one case by citing the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994, which mandate the use of imperial measures for roads.
However, he was convicted on one charge but appealed and won – allowing the group to continue removing the signs.
Mr Norman revealed that after the ruling most councils backed down apart from Portsmouth City Council which said it would change the signs back to metric.
However, with the referendum result seeing Britain vote to leave the EU it seems the future is brighter for Mr Norman.
He said: “We have never been anti-European. We go on holiday to Europe and the people and cuisine are lovely. We have always been against the European Union taking us over.
“My first feelings about that came when Ted Heath took us into the Common Market but at the same time gave away our independence.
“I remember when Harold Wilson sent out leaflets that went around the country saying that joining the Common Market will not mean that they will be making our laws.
“That turned out to be a complete lie.”
He claims his actions are legal because the Traffic Signs Regulations 1994 states that distance signs must only be in miles and yardsMr Norman became active in UKIP when the party was in its infancy and created its East of England chapter in 1995.
He said: “I was an electrical engineer and I was quite happy to use metric units for physics, chemistry and science but I do not see why they should make our everyday life metric.
“If you buy a loaf of bread why does it have to be in metric? So from that point we were opposed to it.
“We also found out that local councils were going to change all the road signs in the country illegally.
“We saw a solicitor and he went through all the road regulations and found that it wasn’t legal to put up metric signs.”
During a recent UKIP Bonfire Night party, the group celebrated by burning an effigy of Ted Heath – the Conservative prime minister who in 1973 brought the UK into the European Community, the EU’s predecessor.
Mr Norman said: “I couldn’t believe that we actually had the chance to leave the EU. I worked so hard in my own time. I won’t know what to do.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22529...country-to-remove-hated-eu-metric-road-signs/