Bromley residents demand traffic calming after 1,000 speeding reports

Residents in south-east London say repeated reports of speeding cars have failed to prompt meaningful action, despite more than 1,000 submissions to police over the past year.

People living on Siward Road and Godwin Road near Bromley town centre say drivers routinely use the streets as short cuts, accelerating well beyond the 30mph limit. They are now calling for physical traffic-calming measures including chicanes, road narrowing and planters.

Local residents report eight accidents between 2024 and 2025, including a pedestrian being knocked over. They argue that enforcement alone has not altered behaviour and that road design must change.

Susannah and Donald Miller, who live on Godwin Road, describe conditions as intolerable. They first raised concerns with Bromley Council in 2019, after which a speed-activated sign was installed. Residents say it has had limited impact.

The couple say they have since reported around 1,000 vehicles that appeared to be clearly speeding, supplying registration details to police. In 2024, they purchased a speed gun to gather more systematic data. One motorist was recorded travelling at 75mph. Of 979 vehicles monitored, they say 40 per cent exceeded the speed limit.

Ms Miller said the problem reflected a wider shift in attitudes. “We need to make speeding socially unacceptable, the same way that drink-driving and not wearing a seatbelt is absolutely unacceptable.”

Another resident, Becky Candy, said the roads carry families, elderly residents and pets, as well as crossings and blind spots. “All it takes is one person out there and it’s a serious accident,” she said.

Bromley Council says the roads are not currently considered a priority for further intervention. Nicholas Bennett, the borough’s councillor for transport, highways and road safety, said more than 60 locations across Bromley were on a priority list and that funding from Transport for London required decisions to be based on recorded injury data.

He said there had been no recorded injury collisions on Siward or Godwin Roads in the three years to June 2025.

The Metropolitan Police said officers had carried out speed-enforcement checks in the area and would continue working with the council, which is responsible for physical traffic-calming measures.

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