MOTORISTS travelling into Derby along Mansfield Road will soon know when they have entered Derwent, thanks to a new sign on the right side of the road.
Three other similar signs – on Nottingham Road near to Huntingdon Green, Max Road, near Chaddesden Park Road, and Hampshire Road, close to Beaufort Community School – have also been put in place.
The four signs have cost £3,000 and were requested and funded by Derwent Neighbourhood Board, according to Derby City Council to "strengthen the image of the ward".
Derwent is not a suburb or postal location and is instead a constituency ward of the city.
The name is more commonly associated with the county's main river and also the former North Derbyshire village which was flooded and submerged when Ladybower Reservoir was built in 1944.
The only connection between the ward and the village is that the bell from the village church was rescued and rehung in St Philip's Church, Taddington Road, which is in Derwent ward, when it was built in 1955.
Patrick Jennison, 48, of Bishop's Drive, Oakwood, said: "I have never seen anything so silly. Everyone knows this area is either Chaddesden or Oakwood. There is no such postal place as Derwent. What a waste of money."
Jean Harris, 61, of St Andrew's View, Breadsall Hilltop, added: "Anyone looking on a map won't find Derwent in Derby. This is just madness."
The signage is the latest to cause confusion in the area around Oakwood.
In 2010, a sign saying Mid Derbyshire, which is a parliamentary constituency, appeared on Acorn Way, despite the area being in Derbyshire, Derby and on the fringe of Erewash.
The latest sign on Mansfield Road has been attached to the reverse of an Oakwood sign, at a point when many people will feel they are entering one of a few places – Chaddesden, Breadsall Hilltop or Derby itself.
A city council spokesman said: "Some Derby suburbs have boundary signs, others are identified on direction signs.
"Over the years, a number of Derby suburbs have had boundary signs including Chaddesden, Oakwood, Spondon, Darley Abbey, Chellaston, Allenton, Mackworth, Mickleover, Pear Tree and Osmaston."
With the exception of the final two places, they are all suburbs with postal addresses in their own right, while Osmaston and Pear Tree are part of are the larger suburbs of Allenton and Normanton respectively.
