Residents ‘terrified’ of cars speeding up to 75mph down street

Residents are ‘terrified’ of speeding cars in their street which they claim have demolished a garden wall and reach speeds of up to 75mph.

Siward Road sits in Bromley town between Bickley and Bromley South railway stations, and has a 30mph speed limit.

Susannah Miller, 49, has lived in Siward Road for 11 years with her husband Donald, 50. The couple said the lack of on-street parking has encouraged drivers to show a ‘general disregard’ towards speed limits.

Ms Miller said: “When kids are going to school, people are trying to get their children into cars.

“That’s the terrifying bit because it only takes one small lapse of concentration and there’s an incident. We have had a car shunted on to the pavement, people could have been seriously hurt.

“There was another incident where somebody’s front garden wall was absolutely demolished.”

Ms Miller said she has raised the issue with Bromley council at various times since 2019, but was told in an automated response that the authority prioritises locations with a high number of injury collisions.

She said that the council has added a roundabout and speed activated sign to the street, but the measures have done little to improve the issue.

Ms Miller said she and her husband bought a radar speed gun to measure speeds on the road and were ‘astonished’ by the results.

The couple claimed that out of 900 journeys they observed, 40 per cent of drivers were going above the 30mph speed limit, with 12 per cent exceeding 35mph. The resident said they have even recorded speeds of up to 75mph several times a week.

Ms Miller said locals understand the pressures for council finances, but that they would welcome any sort of measures on the road that would solve the issue.

A survey commissioned by Bromley Lib Dems in June last year across Siward Road, Homesdale Road, Gundulph Road and Godwin Road found 97 per cent of respondents were worried about speed on roads in their area. The survey was reportedly filled in by 44 per cent of households on the included streets.

Residents also claimed to have had their wing mirrors knocked off on several occasions. Rosie Hallett, 59, has lived on the road since 2000 and said her household experiences stress ‘every day’ from speeding on the road.

Ms Hallett said: “I really feel for the people with small children on this street, it must be just a permanent worry.”

A Met Police spokesman said: “Local officers from the Bromley Town Safer Neighbourhoods Team continue to speak with local people and are aware of their ongoing concerns.”

Conservative councillor Nicholas Bennett, executive councillor for transport, highways and road safety for Bromley council, said: “Bromley has a good road safety record and reducing casualties remains central to Bromley’s transport priorities and key to this is targeting our finite resources at locations where collision data shows that we can make a difference.”

The councillor claimed there have been no reported injury collisions on Siward Road between 2021 and 2023.

Cllr Bennett said: “I use the road regularly and parked cars on both sides of the road mean that cars have to travel slowly and give way to pass but speed enforcement is something the police are responsible for and there appears to be a case for speed enforcement at this location which would help.

“As with all locations across the borough, we will continue to monitor activity to continue to impact on the downward trend we have seen in collisions where residents have been seriously injured.”