Loud motorbike revving can be heard from Westwood Hill

[ahe2806]

Has anyone else heard the constant motorbike revving the last few nights in this area? Non stop yesterday evening.

[JRW]

Not just in your area. Lower Sydenham has been hosting some kind of rally, with stunt driving and high speed races, for some time now. What is going on? Even in broad daylight, cars and bikes are speeding and doing incredibly dangerous manoeuvres.

I think this has been getting worse in the last six months, but wonder if anyone else has any ideas about what is going on? Before anyone says it's just kids having fun, a substantial proportion of drivers involved are adults, some positively middle aged.

[Sydenham Syd]

We have heard them for the last couple of nights, although interestingly not last night. There have always been a few bikes around since I've lived here - I know of three that are residents of the flats next to Home Pk - and they fly along the high st at night. Seems they have gained a few pals.

It appears they have created a circuit from Sainsburys one way system up the high st, left down Cator Rd, past Penge East, back down Newlands Pk, back down the High St. and start again. A sort of massive figure of 8.

Someone will get killed, either rider or pedestrian sooner or later - the odds against it are small.

I take it the police are aware? Doesn't seem they have done anything.

[JRW]

I am near Home Park on Fairlawn park, and it was dreadful last night. I keep getting woken up by their night shift team in the early hours. Someone is going to get killed before long.

[ahe2806]

Glad it’s not just me. I have not seen this circuit but I am going to flag with the police in the event that they haven’t been made aware. Again, I can’t see what’s happening but it sounds outrageous.

[JRW]

I sent an email to Shaun today, and let's hope that something gets done. I tried ringing the non-emergency police number several times, but they simply never answer.

[Zsazsa]

I have just heard them again and have phoned 101. They have asked for police to attend and said others should report too to raise the profile of this issue. Fingers crossed

[JayB]

In addition to the mopeds I saw on Perry Rise/Bell Green with no number plates, doing wheelies, I now note there is a burned out moped left lying on the River Walk path (Sydenham end ) near the recreation ground.

[John H]

A large group of people congregate at the end of Kangley Bridge Road with a combination of illegal, unregistered motor bikes, mopeds, four wheel unlicensed vehicles et al. They seem to think they have a right to organise races on the road.

[JGD]

Several groups have been congregating from time to time at that location and in the car parks at the retail park over the past couple of years.

On one occasion last year there were approx 120 bikes and quads cruising on Perry Hill on both lanes taking up the full width of the road heading toward Catford. In fear of a head on collision I dialled 999 - the remote call centre (Cambridge I think) could not understand what the danger was (it is an A class road) and declined to have police respond.

We have observed repeats of this incident in smaller numbers locally and strangely enough in Blackheath Village.

[Zsazsa]

I urge people to report these incidents. I called 101 on Wednesday evening and got through straight away. I know sometime it is not so easy but it is worth it. The more reports there the harder it is to ignore.

[Sydenham]

This behaviour (and the detail in the forum thread) was specifically brought up at the Ward Panel meeting yesterday evening with our local Safer Neighbourhood Team (police).

But good advice to keep on reporting the behaviour to keep pressure on.

[dcjprior]

Morons are out yet again this evening. Two motorcyclists doing loops down Trewsbury-Cator-Lennard-Kent House Roads - many multiples in excess of the 20mph limit.

There are residents trying to sleep along these streets, pedestrians, people backing out of their driveways, cats, an infants' school. Why on earth are they getting away with it? How can one get a £100 fine and three points by doing 24 mph through the speed camera on Westwood Hill yet these people get off scot free?

[Ghlpc]

Yeah they were up and down Kangley Bridge Road yesterday evening, wheelieing and speeding for a good few hours and making so much excessive noise!

Such a shame as we were at a lovely christening at the Sydenham Sports Club which was spoilt by that.

[Krander]

I tried to call 101 a couple of weeks ago when they were about (7pm, loads of kids around, riding up onto the pavements on Bell Green Lane). Was on hold for 30 mins before giving up, so tweeted the Met Police instead. They took all the details and said they would send someone out but of course by the time we got to that point the bikes had gone.

However, a couple of days later I was left a voicemail while I was at work by someone from Lewisham Council. She said they are well aware of the problem, but the bikers constantly jump the boundaries from Lewisham to Bromley, Lambeth and Southwark so they have had a lot of difficulty catching them (I can see that being an issue for the council but not quite sure why that would cause problems for the police).

There's a cuppa with a copper at the library tomorrow - I was planning on dropping by to raise the issue (again!) then. I live on Winchfield Road and at times the noise of the revving is utterly unbearable.

[dcjprior]

I live on Trewsbury Road where the top (northern) end is narrow and has parked cars on either side. There is a 20 limit at this end (LB Lewisham) - 20 is about as fast as you can proceed safely along this part, as there are so many pedestrians, cars emerging from driveways and due to the sheer weight of traffic negotiating parked vehicles. The bottom end (actually Cator Road) is in the LB Bromley, considerably wider with good sightlines, few parked cars and has a 30 limit (with an infant's school as well). People absolutely bomb it up the street - including at the top, narrow end with the parked cars. It is dead straight, there are no speed cameras or speed humps and I suppose it's just too much of a temptation for certain lunatics. You regularly get people doing 70-80+. The problem is that when certain councils (Lewisham, Southwark) impose arbitary 20 limits on all non-red routes, where they aren't appropriate (e.g. at the Bell Green gyratory), people will simply ignore them when they are indeed appropriate.

I drive a relatively powerful car and may or may not have come close to exceeding the speed limit on an empty motorway once or twice in my life. There is a time and a place to put your foot down, however, and a residential street with kids walking around really is not that place. I have already witnessed one accident (thankfully no injuries) with a speeding lorry swiping a parked car, and it's only a matter of time before somebody is seriously injured or killed. If the Met parked an unmarked police car somewhere near the Woodbastwick Road junction at about 10pm on a summer's evening it would go a long way to solving the problem immediately.

[syd-gal]

On a slightly different note, does anyone know what happened at the small roundabout at the junction of Kent House Rd with Kent House Lane about 3 days ago? Someone obviously hit the 2 central crossing areas and demolished the wall of the garden of the corner house.

[JRW]

O lord. A 6' garden wall was destroyed at the corner of Fairlawn Park and Sydenham Road a few weeks ago. Idiot racer natch. Somebody is going to be killed.

[Blondie12]

We live nearby, a car hit the island and flipped into the wall and the driveway at 4am on Saturday. I think whoever was in the car ran away as there as no one in it by the time we’d got up to look what the massive bang was and why the dog was howling.

[JRW]

Wow. Same as the Fairlawn corner one. That was 01:30, and the driver ran away.

Is your one in Bromley or Lewisham? Maybe a cross-boundary issue might get the councils to act, if only to look good in comparison to the other?