RESIDENTIAL streets in Little Lever will become 20mph zones — and plans are in place to do the same across the borough.

The pilot scheme — which will cost £25,000 — is seen by Bolton Council chiefs as the first step towards making all of Bolton’s residential roads 20mph.

In April, 2013, councillors agreed to introduce a mandatory 20mph speed limit on the majority of residential roads in the borough.

But last year, town hall bosses admitted the plans had been delayed because of a shortage of cash.

The village of Little Lever has been chosen as the first to benefit from the plans because geographical factors mean that it will be relatively cheap to carry out.

Kearsley has also been identified as another area where it would be easy and inexpensive to implement the speed limit.

There have been a number of petitions produced by Little Lever residents asking for action to be taken on speeding motorists after a number of high-profile crashes.

The council’s executive member for the environment Cllr Nick Peel said: "I think we have had about three petitions from the residents asking for traffic calming measures in specific areas.

“There is no dedicated budget for that so rather than having to keep rejecting those petitions we are planning to make it a 20mph area.

“We passed a motion at full council to introduce the speed limit across residential areas in Bolton but there wasn’t a budget for it, so we looked into a piecemeal approach.

“Little Lever is geographically quite easy to do because it is away from the urban area of Bolton and only has a small number of roads leading into it — so we are doing it as a first stage in rolling out the legally enforceable limits across residential areas in Bolton.”

Cllr Peel said he was currently speaking to police about issues regarding enforcement of the limit.

The news has been welcomed by Little Lever resident Vicky Duncan, who was involved with a petition calling for traffic calming measures to be brought near her home in Tong Road after a car smashed through her garden wall in September.

She said: “I am very pleased to hear this news. It is really good to hear that the extra signs will be coming in and making the whole area a 20mph limit.

“I hope people will stick to it and reduce their speed, because they cars regularly come flying round corners at speeds of 30 and even 40 mph around here.

“This news makes us feel like we are being listened to.”

Little Lever councillor Anthony Connell has been calling for speed reduction measures in the town for some time.

He said: “I think the majority of people will be very happy with this. There may be negative responses from some but the point is that we keep the speed limit in the minds of drivers and make them slow down.

“The signs will be a timely reminder and focus people’s attention.”

The leader of the Green Party in Bolton, Alan Johnson, is part of the borough’s "20’s plenty" campaign and said the move was a step in the right direction.

He added: “Of course we welcome this news and it is heading the right way.

“We just feel that the process of rolling out the speed limit across the borough could be stepped-up and there are other funding avenues available."

Cllr Peel said he could not put an exact time frame on when the Little Lever plan would come to fruition.

There will be a standard consultation period before any changes are made.

He added: “I hope we can make significant progress in getting it sorted fairly soon but of course any objections to the plans will be properly considered.”