Delays on motorway clear after demo near junction

Delays on and around the M5 near Bristol have eased following a protest which blocked road access into a dock.

A group of farmers staged the demonstration at Portbury Docks in North Somerset earlier over imported goods and their impact on the UK's food and agricultural industries.

According to traffic monitoring site Inrix, there were delays on the A369 Martcombe Road while queues on the M5 southbound stretched back to the M49 interchange. Motorists were advised to allow extra time for their journeys and to consider alternative routes.

Avon and Somerset Police said officers attended the scene to minimise disruption and to engage with the "peaceful protest", which ended shortly after 07:00 GMT.

The Bristol Port Company, which operates the dock, has been approached for comment.

About 25 tractors, 10 Land Rovers, trucks and cattle boxes from Somerset, Devon and Cornwall attended the demonstration.

Paul Godden, a farmer from Glastonbury, organised it to "stand up" for their industry.

He said farmers were being "driven into the ground" as a result of lower profits.

"This whole inheritance tax issue, we've all been betrayed," he added.

In December, the government said its planned threshold for a 20% tax on inherited agricultural assets would be raised from £1m to £2.5m.

Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds announced the watered down plans after months of protests by farmers and concern from some Labour backbenchers.

The original proposals were projected to have raised an estimated £520m annually by 2029.

The government had argued the change would protect smaller farms while stopping wealthy investors from buying farmland as a tax loophole.

"If we have to bring this country to a standstill for somebody to listen to us, we are prepared to do it, but none of us want to do it," Godden said.

"We want to stay away from that idea, but it is there."

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