In the latest of our ward profiles for the May 5 local elections, political editor Ian Onions looks at WESTON- SUPER-MARE

UNLESS you suffer the daily headache of commuting from Weston-super-Mare, it’s hard to understand the significance of upgrading Junction 21 on the M5.

This roundabout over the motorway creates a massive pinchpoint at peak hours which brings traffic to a standstill every day.

Unless you travel down the A38 to Burnham-on-Sea, this roundabout is the only access to Weston and because there are so few employers in the town, most workers – about 20,000 of them – have to commute.

There are plans for improvements at the junction but these are part of a package of transport measures for the greater Bristol area which have been put forward to the Department for Transport by the West of England Partnership, a body which represents the four councils in former Avon.

But public spending cuts by the Coalition Government have put a massive question mark over whether any of them will go ahead. We will not know the answer until the autumn.

Weston does have a train station so travelling by rail is an option but the lack of carriages on most services means that passengers have to cram themselves in as best they can or wait for another train.

Part of the £12 million transport improvement package for Junction 21 is an upgrade for Worle Station including a new car park on the south side.

Other improvements would include bus stops and bus priority measures on both sides and better cycle and passenger facilities and widening the A370 at Marchfields Way to allow two-way traffic.

A showcase bus service was recently unveiled between Weston and Bristol but even buses get stuck in jams when there are no dedicated bus lanes.

This problem over access to the town is stifling business and the lack of industrial investment. You only have to look out of the window from your car as you approach Junction 21 from Weston to see the landlocked fields which are advertised for business development. Down the road at Bridgwater and Taunton, the councils have managed to encourage firms to relocate and create jobs but in Weston, there is only one significant employer apart from the seasonal tourist trade which is North Somerset District Council. Hardly surprising, therefore, why there is so much resistance to council staff being controversially moved to new offices at Castlewood in Clevedon, which were bought from Clerical Medical for £12 million.

Although there is a lack of industrial development to create jobs and help the local economy, house building in Weston has been on an unprecedented scale.

The only trouble is that community facilities are desperately lacking. In West Wick, for example, there have been 1,200 new-builds but there are no play areas and no community facilities except one pub, The Bucket and Spade. Even some of the roads on these new estates have not yet been adopted by the council, ten years after they built.

The three wards of Milton and Old Worle, North Worle and East are all held by the Tories but South Worle is held by the Liberal Democrats.

There are few Labour voters in any of these wards so the battle will be between the Tories and Lib Dems. It’s hard to see, therefore, how the policies of the Coalition Government will shake out in these wards.

The Liberal Democrats claim that the national political scene will not affect their vote because people will decide according to local issues.

The Tories, however, can point to a relatively low council tax which has not seen any increase this year.