Europe lets Britain keep the mile

• European Parliament lets imperial stay
• Road signs can stay in miles
• Britain is only EU nation using miles on signs

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The European Parliament has agreed to allow Britain to continue using the mile rather than forcing a switch to the kilometre.

The ruling is part of a widespread decision to allow traders to display imperial and metric measurements in shops and elsewhere.

It also saves motorists from having to use kilometres for speed limits and distances on road signs. The motorway speed limit, for instance, would have changed to 110kph.

Under previous proposals, Britain and Ireland would have been forced to give firm dates for scrapping imperial measurements. Ireland has already switched its road signs to kilometres and metres.