Cambridge is finally becoming a 20mph city, almost five years after Oxford took the plunge.

Signs are going up this week on residential roads in north Cambridge and Chesterton, including busy through roads such as Arbury Road and Chesterton High Street. The limit will come into force in early April.

Then, if a public consultation agrees, the limit will be extended this summer to the Abbey, Coleridge, Romsey and Petersfield wards in east Cambridge. The consultation is open until the end of March.

The Cambridge Cycling Campaign has come out in support of the lower speed limit, saying: “Such limits make streets far more pleasant for those who live on them, enabling many more people, especially the young and old to move around on foot or on bike in confidence. Widespread introduction of such limits in other cities has proved popular to all but a very small minority.”

However, that very small minority inevitably includes UKIP’s local chairman, the notoriously anti-cyclist Peter Burkinshaw. He told the Cambridge News: “The only people who support it are people who ride bikes and don’t have cars so I think it’s a waste of money. 30mph is low enough anyway.”