The cabinet’s decision to increase the maximum motorway speed from 100 kph back up to 130 kph could well be a damp squib for speed lovers, with just one stretch of motorway up to the test, the Telegraaf reported on Monday.

The coalition agreement aim is to increase the speed  “where possible”, but a combination of traffic safety unknowns, nitrogen-based pollution rules and noise prevention will make the reintroduction of the new speed limit all but impossible, the paper said.

“The wording of the paragraph is wrong for a start,” Saskia de Craen of traffic safety organisation SWOV told the paper. “We already have a 130kph speed limit on some of the motorways which comes into effect in the night,” she said.

There are also rumblings at the infrastructure ministry about the feasibility of changing the rules around speed, the paper said.

Motorways which are within 25 kilometre radius of a Natura 2000 area do no qualify for a higher maximum speed. Under the current rules, that leaves only the Houtribdijk, a 26 kilometre dyke between Lelystad and Enkhuizen, where drivers can step on the gas.

If the coalition’s plan to increase the maximum speed, the amount of nitrogen produced will have to be compensated for elsewhere, nitrogen minister Christianne van der Wal has warned.

The Netherlands had a 130 kph speed limit on a number of roads up to 2020 but it was cut to compensate for the extra pollution generated by the construction industry – particularly of new homes.

A large number of building projects had been put on hold after the Council of State ruled current measures to reduce nitrous oxide and ammonia pollution were insufficient.