Bristol election ward profile: Kingsweston

This ward can be divided into three distinct areas – the Lawrence Weston council estate, the upmarket leafy Coombe Dingle area and Sea Mills, which is known as a garden suburb because of its open spaces and large gardens.

The busy Kings Weston Road, which is notable for its lack of pavements, slashes across the middle of the ward, so that if you drive towards Henbury, you can see Lawrence Weston stretching out towards the M5 below to the left and the Blaise Castle Estate is on your right. Coombe Dingle and Sea Mills lie beyond the parkland.

The ward is mostly residential with large tracts of green open space. Besides the Blaise Castle Estate, there is Shirehampton golf course lying next to Shirehampton and the A4 Portway and in the northern corner of the ward, a nature reserve called Lawrence Weston Meadows.

A key issue has emerged in the ward during the past couple of weeks which might have an effect on voting.

The city council has scrapped plans to rebuild more than 500 houses affected by concrete cancer due to the recession. The council had hoped to find a developer to help build 1,000 homes with 300 coming back to the council for renting out.

But the tendering process has come to a halt because of the economic downturn.

It means hundreds of council tenants with PRC (precast reinforced concrete) homes face months of uncertainty over what will happen to their homes and where they may live in the future.

A well-organised campaign fought the council's plans on the grounds that the type of new homes which were envisaged would have changed the character of some of the streets, notably in the Sea Mills' area.

However, some tenants who were expecting to move are very disappointed the issue is back to the drawing board for at least 12 months.

The 11,000-odd population is mostly from a white Christian background (95.6 per cent) with nearly half (49 per cent) of the households are owner-occupied. Many of the council homes were bought by tenants under the Right-to-Buy scheme.

There are only about 1,000 jobs in the area, mostly small firms and services, which reflects the residential nature of the ward.

The amount of open space is nearly six times the ward average for the city, which shows why it is such a popular area to live.

There is no main shopping centre as such – the area is served mostly by local stores. But Shirehampton, Cribbs Causeway and Westbury-on-Trym are not far away.

Crime is below average for offences such as assaults, thefts from motor vehicles, burglaries and wounding. But the number of domestic incidents and abandoned vehicles are above the city-wide norm.

A council survey showed that 41 per cent of residents felt safe in their neighbourhood after dark compared with a ward average of 46 per cent.

Anti-social behaviour is an issue, however. Nearly two-thirds of people who responded to the council survey (63 per cent) felt anti-social behaviour was a problem. This compares with a ward average of 41 per cent.

There are four schools in the ward – two of which are Roman Catholic and achieve excellent results. They are Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary and St Bede's Catholic College. The other two schools are primaries – Bank Leaze and Sea Mills.

A total of 85 per cent of residents say they are happy and 62 per cent say they are satisfied with life.

● Political forecast: The Lib Dems have been gradually whittling away at Labour's majority in this seat. So much so, that the last time the seat was fought, Labour won with a majority of just 24 votes. This seat could easily be a Labour loss on June 4 and a gain for the Lib Dems but don't be surprised if there is a recount.