DRIVERS will have to be ultra-careful to keep to this speed limit.

Visitors to the building site in Benwell, Newcastle, which is operated by Galliford Try, are asked to stick to precisely nine-and-a-half miles-an-hour.

One builder working on the site said: "I haven't got a clue why there's a speed limit like that on the site.

"Most of the vehicles don't have speedometers so you don't know how fast you're going - the digger does, but even if it could go at half or quarter miles per hour it would be very hard to judge."

Richard Hancock, project manager for Galliford Try in Newcastle, said the signs were part of a site safety initiative.

“We have a large site here and we could have put a 10mph speed limit on it and everybody drives past it and ignores it,” he said. “As is obvious from everyone’s interest, by making it nine-and-a-half miles an hour they pay more attention.”