Beckenham residents are frustrated by huge puddles regularly forming on their street, fearing a ‘toddler could drown’ in water they say is starting to resemble a series of small ponds.

Locals feel the issue has been made worse by parents dropping their kids off to the local school as it causes ever bigger pools of water on the unpaved road which shifts and sinks with the weight of car tyres.

Melanie Packwood, 74, has lived in a cul-de-sac off Westgate Road in Beckenham for 21 years.

St Mary's Catholic Primary School is based on the roadSt Mary's Catholic Primary School is based on the road The resident said that while there have always been issues with the unpaved road, puddles have gotten so much wider and deeper in recent years that her supermarket delivery drivers no longer drive up Westgate Road and use a trolley to deliver to her home.

Ms Packwood told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “Now it is a much, much worse problem. I mean, there were puddles before and they were perhaps 10 centimetres deep.

"You can see it’s much more than that now and they are much, much wider. The wider and the steeper they are, I think the more momentum there is to vehicles sort of hitting the bottom and scraping up the soft mud at the bottom so it’s difficult.”

Residents said the state of the road has become worse by parents dropping their kids at schoolResidents said the state of the road has become worse by parents dropping their kids at school

She added: “I actually find that when I invite people over I say to them, ‘Please, park on one of the roads and walk the rest of the way in your oldest clothes and welly boots’, because you don’t want the problem of washing mud off.”

Westgate Road is an unadopted road, meaning that Bromley Council has no obligation to maintain the street despite being the highways authority for it.

The matter is further complicated by Lewisham Council owning a portion of the road that runs alongside Beckenham Place Park.

Ms Packwood said the authority previously contributed to the upkeep of the road due to the presence of St Mary’s Catholic Primary School, but said that this ceased after the school was turned into an academy in 2014.

Ms Packwood said residents have historically contributed financially to maintaining and repairing the road, but many stopped after the council and school paused their payments.

She added that traffic outside the school increased significantly in the 1990s when it expanded, with parents driving down the road exacerbating the issue.

Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said they lived on Westgate Road until 10 years ago and they now live a short walk away.

They said they have also noticed the state of the road declining recently and feared the deep potholes could cause an accident on the road.

They told the LDRS: “I’m sure it didn’t used to be like this. It must have had a few potholes then, but I would have remembered this.”

They added: “If I had my granddaughter here today, if I lived on this road, I would be nervous about her crossing the road. It’s deep enough for a toddler to drown in if they were unaccompanied… I think that the little ponds are big enough for ducks and maybe tadpoles. Maybe we can rewild the road.”

Ivan Bailey, 63, has used Westgate Road to visit Beckenham Place Park with his grandson.

He said he feels most parents should not drive their children to school if they can help it and felt closing off the road entirely with permit-only parking could improve matters.

He told the LDRS: “I was thinking how on earth do people drive along here?”

He added: “Obviously there’s only a few houses on the road, so in terms of pleasing a population, there are probably more densely populated areas in Bromley that have got worse roads and they’re paved and everything. So I would say it’s not a big priority [for the council].”

Westgate Road Residents’ Association told the LDRS the road is nearly exclusively used by parents of children at St Mary’s and by visitors of Beckenham Place Park. They added that financial contributions from locals do not currently meet the required repair costs for the road given its usage.

A spokesperson added: “Cars and bikes drive up the verges of the road every day right outside the school. Cars are forced to drive down the wrong side of the road and have been damaged, alongside people falling.”

Robin Hoyles, Chair of Governors for St Mary’s Catholic Primary School Beckenham, told the LDRS: “The school has actively engaged with residents, councillors and members of the council’s highways department for many years and continues to do so.

"The school is a publicly funded body with statutory duties to use the money it receives for the education of children. The school made a financial contribution when the road was last repaired in 2018 and has offered a similar contribution on several occasions recently.”

Bromley and Lewisham councils were approached for comment but had not responded at the time of publication.