Speed limits on most of Croydon's roads are set to be cut to 20mph.

Croydon Council is expected to approve plans next week to tighten restrictions on nearly all residential roads across the borough in a bid to improve safety and reduce car use. 

The speed limits will be implemented in five stages over three years at an estimated cost of £1.5m, with only major A-roads exempt. 

 The council has carved up Croydon in five zones and will ask people who live and work in each if they want 20mph roads.

Coun Kathy Bee, the council’s cabinet member for transport and the environment, said: "Safer roads mean safer residents, and we’re exploring 20mph limits so our borough is a better place to live and work.

"However, we’ll only do this if our residents want it to happen. This change could bring a huge improvement to the lives of thousands of our residents plagued by speeding drivers, but getting it right means consulting properly.

"We plan to assess demand one area at a time over the next three years, starting with residents in the north who already tell us speeding is a problem there."

The first consultation, in Norbury, Upper Norwood, South Norwood and Thornton Heath, will launch on May 13 and close on June 24. Residents and businesses will invited to answer an online questionnaire on the proposals.

Campaign groups both for and against the reduced limits had lobbied the council over the plans.

In submissions to the Streets and Environment Scrutiny Sub-Committee in September, Roger Lawson, London co-ordinator for the Alliance of British Drivers, claimed it would be "rash" to spent money on tightening restrictions.

He said: "We are opposed to blanket wide area 20mph limits because they are not a cost effective road safety measure, are not likely to be complied with and needlessly slow traffic."

But Austen Cooper, of the Croydon Cycling Campaign, argued it was "imperative that action be taken by Croydon Council to make it easier and safer for people of all ages and abilities to choose cycling as an everyday means of transport."

He added: "Making Croydon a 20mph borough will be a step in the right direction."

In Portsmouth, where 94 per cent of the city's roads have 20mph limits, police reported a 21 per cent fall in injuries caused by road collision in the two years after restrictions came into force.