The Infrastructure Minister has admitted ‘she made the smiley face sad’ when going over the 20mph speed limit which now covers Port St Mary.

Michelle Haywood, who is also a Rushen MHK, admitted the misdemeanour while answering a question on the issue in the House of Keys – before quickly clarifying she was only 1mph over.

Douglas Central MHK Chris Thomas, asked the Minister about the speed limit costs, what backing there had been locally and what evidence there was on its effectiveness.

When asked what evidence she had that speed limits would be effective Mrs Haywood said there was no island-based evidence to rely on but she had looked further afield in the UK and Europe.

She added: ‘We are measuring the speed in the aftermath of putting up signs and I know myself because I made the smiley face look sad this morning (Tuesday) as I came past it.’

After sighs of mock disapproval from members, she quickly added the added she only went ‘1mph over’.

Mrs Haywood revealed the overall cost of introducing the speed limit was £15,000 including labour and materials, she said.

Outlining the benefits, she said: ‘The department’s primary initiative for introducing residential 20mph speed limits is to realise the wider community-based benefits, including safer and more community-friendly streets and long-term health, environment and social goals.

‘Casualty reduction is undoubtedly an underlying benefit of these changes.’

She said the scheme had received the backing of local MHKs, commissioner and the headteacher at Scoill Phurt le Moirrey.

When asked about enforcement, Mrs Haywood said: ‘I spent come considerable time discussing this with one of the [police] sergeants who operates quite a lot down south who welcomed all of the changes.

‘People do go sign blind but you need only one person to adhere to the limits as everyone else behind them will have to stick to the limits as well.

‘But we are monitoring the speeds on the roads and we are committed to going back and addressing it if those roads are still proving to have speeds which are inappropriate for the location.’

Mr Thomas then asked the minister why the speed limits were introduced now when she had previously described similar plans in February 2023 as ‘insane’.

But Mrs Haywood said those plans were ‘overly engineered’ with multiple traffic-calming measures.

She explained: ‘What we are now doing is a much lighter touch rather than doing heavy engineering by doing the cheaper option of putting signs in and we are very cognisant of making the appropriate adaptations for the environment we are in.

‘We know that speed bumps, speed cushions and speed tables are problematic for some of our older towns and villages and we know that they also cause problems with buses getting through. So we will not be installing those features.’

There are plans to roll out the 20mph zones across other parts of the island over the next two years but this has sparked opposition with a petition against the plans launched.

There are concerns the speed limits will increase congestion and CO2 emissions.