Britain has been reminded by the European commission of its legal requirement to set a deadline for converting all road signs into metric measures in line with the rest of Europe.

The approach was made in the past few weeks by the commission, which says it has been lobbied by unnamed parties to raise the issue. It has also specified other uses of imperial measures — from pints in pubs to inches used in measuring clothes — due for abolition.

A spokesman for Günter Verheugen, the European commissioner on enterprise and industry, said Britain was obliged to fulfil its promise to scrap imperial measures. “We are in touch with the UK about how they want to do it,” he said. “In legal terms it is clear they have committed themselves to the metric system . . . now we have to see how to deal with it.”

Any change would be likely to spark opposition from groups and members of the public who see imperial measures as part of Britain’s cultural identity. The scrapping of pounds and ounces in shops in favour of kilograms and grams caused public resentment which the government is unlikely to want to revive.

The country is becoming increasingly isolated in its use of imperial measures. Earlier this year Ireland completed its conversion by changing all speed and distance signs into kilometres, leaving only a handful of countries, including America and Britain, still using miles on roads.

The government has held out against the change, arguing that more than 40% of drivers were not given metric tuition at schools and therefore might be confused by the change.

Britain promised to introduce metric measurements in 1979, but was given a “derogation” allowing it to delay implementation of some of the changes. The country’s failure to propose a deadline is viewed in Brussels as a breach of the spirit of its commitments.

However, a spokesman for the Department for Transport said: “The derogation says we will go to metric when we choose a date. We are within our rights, and we have no intention of getting rid of the mile.”

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