The residents say the street is regularly gridlocked and they are worried a child could be ‘killed’ due to speeding cars.
Lesley Mansfield, 76, has lived on Copers Coper Road in Beckenham for 36 years with her husband, Nigel Squibb, 71.
The road hosts Crystal Palace FC’s academy grounds, which had its grand opening in 2021 following a major redevelopment of the site.
Ms Mansfield, who is a retired doctor, said traffic in the area has since been severely affected by the academy due to the restricted parking access on the site.
Ms Mansfield told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “The parking is beyond a joke… They used to park everywhere, including over my drive.
“If I got a call-out to come and see somebody with chest pains, I would not be able to get out of my own drive.
“I used to have to phone up Crystal Palace and get them to tell whoever drove the car to come and move it.”
The residents said the issue slightly improved after Bromley Council added spotted double yellow lines to the road.
A Crystal Palace FC source told the LDRS that the club did not tell residents to drive across driveways on Copers Cope Road and that work was being done to convert the grounds into a two-way site for traffic.
However, Mr Squibb said the road still regularly reaches a point of gridlock. He said he has often recorded speeds of up to 70 miles per hour on the street using his own speed gun.
Ms Mansfield said: “It’s also the emergency route for ambulances, fire engines and the police. They come hammering down here on the way to a call.
“We’ve had several accidents right outside our house and next door because the road is straight and there’s a slight bend.”
She added: “Road safety is a big issue. We’re petrified that one kid is going to get killed at some point. Something awful is going to happen one day and that would be a completely unnecessary event.”
Locals on the road have contributed images and videos they have taken of the street on the website of their residents’ association, North Copers Cope Residents Action Group.
The website, seen by the LDRS, appears to show records of several overturned cars, vehicles entering and exiting the academy site after dark as well as long queues of stationary traffic.
However, Ms Mansfield said these incidents have not been acknowledged by Bromley Council when raised by residents.
Ms Mansfield added: “We feel that we are piggy in the middle between the council and Crystal Palace. Neither seem to be acting in the residents’ best interests.”
Michael Anderson, 75, has lived on Copers Cope Road for 10 years and said the lack of speed bumps on the road contributes to the traffic ‘chaos’.
He added that the extensive parking on either side of the road from visitors of the academy means that the road is prone to effectively becoming a one-way street.
He told the LDRS: “There’s cars stopped here, there and everywhere. Coming out the drive, you can’t see what’s happening. You just have to edge out and hope for the best.”
The resident said there has been little engagement from the club on proposals at the academy and most locals find out about new planning applications through the action group.
Mr Anderson added that he noticed the original application from Crystal Palace to build on the site included several comments in support from residents living outside of Beckenham.
The original planning application for the academy shows 600 comments from neighbours regarding the scheme.
Within the supporting comments, which were viewed by the LDRS, several individuals were listed as living in addresses within Kent, Cambridgeshire, Sussex, Surrey, Manchester and Somerset.
One individual was listed as living in France, while another’s address stated they lived in Australia.
The club has made several further planning applications to Bromley Council since opening, including indoor therapy pools and a canopy for spectator seating.
A planning meeting in June this year saw four 21-metre tall floodlights being approved for the central pitch on the grounds.
Conservative Councillor Michael Tickner, representing Beckenham Town and Copers Cope, said at the meeting: “The residents are not very happy… Their consideration for their neighbours around the grounds, my long suffering residents, is absolutely zero.”
Steve Parish, chairman of Crystal Palace FC, said at the meeting that the academy had maintained a good relationship with the community. He added that the grounds of the academy were ‘incredibly ramshackle and run down’ before the club took it over.
Mr Parish said: “I would genuinely refute that we have ever had more than 150 people at an event. This is not a stadium.
“There are no spectators that come from outside. We have to allow scouts in. We have to allow the staff from the other teams in and we do allow parents obviously to come and watch their kids, but in limited numbers.”
James Jack, 66, has lived on the road for over 30 years and told the LDRS: “Nobody has really addressed this business about developing a stadium by stealth… It’s every day that they have something going on there, and it can be at different times of the day as well.”
The local said that road rage on the street becomes particularly prevalent during rush hour. Stephanie Sfakianos, 66, said the parking situation from club visitors has become ‘disastrous’ and has been made worse by cars driving into the site before being told they cannot park there.
Ms Sfakianos told the LDRS: “Every single one of those cars now is stopped at the curtilage. Every single one of them is now causing traffic congestion because they are not allowed on the site.”
She added: “Finally, the council produced enough officers and enforcement notices to discourage people [from parking over the yellow lines]… So now what happens is they park across our drive.
“It’s winter so they have their engines running. Literally every time there is a meeting here, there is somebody parked across our drive.”
A Crystal Palace spokesperson told the LDRS: ”We take our responsibilities to be a good neighbour very seriously and we manage any traffic or parking issues pro-actively.
“We communicate directly with Copers Cope Road residents through a WhatsApp group and respond promptly to any concerns.”
The spokesperson said the club is proud of its role in the community and had invested more than £30 million in world-class facilities for boys and girls at the academy.
They said the facilities also provided significant local community and charitable use through the Palace for Life Foundation.
They added: “We have always been very clear about our plans for the site and we believe our investment has improved both the aesthetics and security of the site to the benefit of the community. Previously, the site was very run-down and used by multiple businesses with no security or adequate parking.”
Bromley Council was approached for comment, but had not responded at the time of publication.
