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Labour council installs ‘socialist speed bumps’

Sat, January 10, 2026 at 10:00 AM GMT

Credit: The Telegraph

A Labour council has been accused of building “socialist speed bumps” that scrape high-performance and luxury family cars.

Residents on an affluent street in Lewisham, south-east London, say the local authority has installed sleeping policemen that are prone to damaging the undercarriages of expensive private vehicles.

Motorists in Blackheath have even produced their own engineering report, which claims that 12 out of a sample of 15 new speed bumps breach Lewisham council’s recommended height limit. The council, however, insists they all meet national guidelines.

The local authority installed the speed bumps a few months ago in an attempt to stop drivers exceeding 20mph speed limits imposed on Lee Terrace and Belmont Hill.

The council has received numerous complaints that they are too high and the undercarriages of a variety of cars are being grazed.

The residents’ report claims the council’s “own standards” dictate that a speed bumpshould not be any higher than 80mm. But five of the 12 cushions they measured appeared to be between 100mm and 105mm high.

Andrew Thorp, a 59-year-old architect who lives on the terrace, carried out the survey after his Mercedes C-Class estate repeatedly scraped the bumps, despite being driven very slowly.

Credit: The Telegraph

“We are paying for the bumps with our council tax, and then paying for the damage to our cars,” he said, insisting he and other residents supported moves to prevent speeding, but felt these bumps were too high.

“Lewisham has spent a lot of time on diversity and inclusion policies, but such policies do not apply to travel – roads are for everyone.

“Trains sometimes have the wrong leaves. But we, according to Lewisham highways department, have the wrong cars. The council is quite literally making mountains out of molehills.”

The council has been sent video clips of vehicles scraping the bumps, while other motorists are being forced to swerve around them.

One Labour councillor responded to complaints about the designs by insisting her old VW Golf experienced no problems when driving over the concrete mounds.

“It’s as if they are socialist speed bumps,” Mr Thorp added, explaining how certain vehicles like Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Tesla, Toyota Aygo and Volkswagen Mini were most likely to grind on the cushions.

“We are in favour of the 20mph speed limit and we are not against speed bumps. But, we think the council has not installed these speed bumps to their own standards,” he said.

Steve Emmott, 67, who also lives on Lee Terrace and struggles to drive his Ferrari over the humps, said: “I have to almost stop entirely before I reach them, coming down to 3-5mph. If I try to straddle them, I will take the underside of my car out.

“We are all pedestrians, cyclists and motorists – so we support the use of speed bumps. But, it’s the size of the things that is the problem.”

Residents claim they are being used as “crash test dummies” by council engineers and contractors building the infrastructure.

Andrew Holmes, an 82-year-old retired civil engineer living on Lee Terrace, said lorries and trucks carrying skips can “shake the house” when they hit the bumps.

“It doesn’t seem to matter how slow the vehicles go. There’s a shudder which can shake the house. Skip lorries are the worst. Trucks also make a huge noise when they drive over them,” he said.

Lewisham Cyclists, part of the London Cycling Campaign, has also expressed opposition to them, claiming “oncoming vehicles swerving round cushions directly towards cyclists or vehicles from behind cutting in front of cyclists to straddle the cushion” can “jeopardise” the safety of those on bikes.

Andrew Thorp carried out the survey after his Mercedes C-Class estate repeatedly scraped the bumps - David Rose

A Lewisham Council spokesman said: “We introduced speed cushions to help drivers stick to the borough’s 20mph limit and make roads safer for everyone, as previous surveys showed average speeds were still significantly over the limit, despite clear signage.

“The cushions we’ve installed follow national guidelines, which allow heights of up to 100mm, and meet Department for Transport standards.

“Earlier this year, we identified three around Belmont Hill and Lee Terrace that needed adjustments and these have now been fixed at the contractor’s expense. All cushions are now within permitted sizes and can be crossed safely by all vehicles at 15–20mph, however driving faster may cause scraping.

“The design allows buses to straddle the cushions, so services are unaffected. With a school near Belmont Hill and a hospital on Lee Terrace, speed control in this area is essential.

“We are monitoring these roads to determine whether there’s an issue with noise caused by the bumps and will take action if the impact is significant. We’ll continue to listen to residents but our priority remains safer roads for all road users.”