Transport planning chiefs are set to draw up a scheme designed to cut rat-running through the Saltaire World Heritage Site following overwhelming public support.

A campaign to cut the speed limit to 20mph has been running in a bid to ease problems – and drive out boy racers and commuters using roads in the historic village as a short cut. Campaigners gathered a 500-signature petition after concerns from families living in Caroline Street that their children may be injured by large volumes of traffic in Sir Titus Salt’s model village.

Now engineers are preparing designs for the scheme, which will include the World Heritage Site as well as Hirst Wood, Nab Wood and surrounding areas.

Councillor Martin Love (Shipley, Green), who presented the petition to Bradford Council, said he was delighted the Council had listened to residents’ concerns.

However, he said engineers would have to tackle difficulties in implementing the 20mph zone in roads running through the historic – and protected – village centre.

“We are really happy that we are able to get a 20mph zone,” he said. “The heritage officers have some concerns about it, because it could mean extra signage in the World Heritage Site – that has been a battle all along – but what we want to do is include a wider area in the scheme so that the signs will be outside the Heritage Site.”

Council engineers, architects and conservation officers will prepare initial designs which will be opened up to public consultation, a council spokesman said. The proposals are not expected to include traffic calming measures such as speed bumps because they would be out of character with the conservation area, Councillor Love said.

He said: “It is not necessarily going to stop the boy racers who insist on driving too fast but if we can generally slow traffic down and have a bit less rat-running, that will be an improvement.”

Coun Love said it was important that work started on the scheme before another £10million project began to ease traffic congestion at busy Saltaire roundabout.

He said: “That could drive traffic into the residential area, so we need work doing on the residential area first.”

Bradford Council’s Saltaire Project Team has already been briefed on the proposals following the outcome of a traffic survey. The proposals will also be put before Saltaire Village Society, which has backed the petition, and other community groups at a meeting on Thursday.

Coun Anne Hawkesworth, Bradford Council’s executive member for environment and culture, said: “We have listened to residents’ concerns and are mindful of the very special circumstances involving the World Heritage Site. We now ask them to bear with us while we prepare designs and go through the consultation and legal processes that are needed.

“We can’t just introduce an ‘off the peg’ solution for Saltaire but I am sure that by working with local people, the conservation experts, our engineers and landscape architects, we will develop a scheme that will fit in well whilst easing residents’ concerns.”

Coun Chris Greaves, chairman of the Saltaire Project Team, welcomed the plan.

He said: “We can now work on designing a scheme which is in harmony with the local environment and helps to reduce residents’ concerns about traffic.”