The Summer of Standstill: If you live around here, you already know the drill. Throughout the summer months, it felt like hardly a day went by without the M5 being closed or partially blocked. But while the overhead signs flash and the motorway queues build, the real pressure valve gets blown right through our local communities.
North Petherton in the Crosshairs: Nobody has felt that spillover quite more than North Petherton. Every time the motorway jams up, rat-runs flood with diverted traffic, making simple local journeys a nightmare. That’s why local voices like Somerset Council leader and North Petherton Councillor Bill Revans and Alan Bradford (taking direct action) , were actively raising awareness and kicking up a fuss over the summer—because their patch is constantly left holding the bag when the region's main artery fails.
Tying the Infrastructure Threads Together: As we’ve pointed out before when looking at major local projects like a Dunball bypass or sorting out the Cross Rifles junction being a potential solution to help this, our local road network is at breaking point. We can't keep absorbing motorway-level traffic onto narrow community streets without a proper strategy from the powers that be.
Visualising the Difference: Imagine a transport network where local leaders don't have to constantly fight national agencies just to keep traffic moving through our towns. We need real, sustained pressure on National Highways to stop treating local villages and towns as the default diversion route.
How much more gridlock can North Petherton and Bridgwater take before something changes?
This seems to be a regular occurrence! © BBC News
