John Penrose

Conservative Party | Weston-super-Mare

Weston’s MP success as Cabinet Minister promises to look into M5 Junction 21 misery 

Weston-super-Mare MP John Penrose was celebrating yesterday as Transport Secretary of State Ruth Kelly promised that she will look into the capacity of Junction 21 of the M5 which is causing deadlock and misery for the town’s residents. 20,000 Westonians currently commute to Bristol every day.

The Highways Agency is refusing to increase the Junction's capacity until more jobs have been created in the town to reduce the level of traffic. The draft Regional Spatial Strategy for the area, which sets out plans for development over the next 20 years, would have achieved exactly that, but was recently amended by Government-appointed planners to allow more houses to be built without the necessary local jobs.

In oral questions yesterday Mr Penrose asked Secretary of State for Transport Ruth Kelly to liaise with her opposite number in the Department for Communities and Local Government, which is responsible for the Strategy, to sort out the mess. Ms Kelly promised the Weston MP that she will look into the matter to ensure that the appropriate infrastructure is provided.

Speaking after oral questions Mr Penrose said: “At the moment, thousands of residents are suffering every single day with the jams and queues on malfunction junction. Building extra housing without the necessary local jobs and roads will simply make things even worse.

“We've got different Government departments that don't seem to know what they’re doing, and are headed in opposite directions. On one hand the Transport ministry agrees with local people that Weston needs more local jobs before we build yet more houses, but the Local Government ministry says we've got to go ahead and build the houses whether the jobs and roads are there or not.

“I’m delighted that we've persuaded a Cabinet Minister to listen, and that she's promised to sort it out. With the correct ratio of local jobs to housing and direct investment in the junction a lot of the transport heartache for road users in the area will be gone. I'll be following up with a letter to the Minister, to make sure she doesn't forget her pledge, and one to the Local Government Minister too.”