Sefton is preparing to welcome thousands of visitors to the borough as part of the three day Aintree Grand National Festival which starts on Thursday (April 12).



Sefton Council is one of the many agencies that will help thousands of festival goers get to and from Aintree Racecourse as smoothly as possible this week.

Working alongside Merseyside Police, Merseytravel and several other partners, the Council’s traffic management team helps coaches, cars, limousines and even horse boxes get to the right place at the right time.



They also help residents who aren’t attending the festival to go about their daily business with as little disruption as possible.

A number of diversions and traffic management measures will be in place throughout the festival’s three days (Thursday, April 12 – Saturday, April 14) including temporary closures.

Residents who are not attending the festival are advised to avoid the A59 Ormskirk Road from Switch Island through to the Black Bull junction.

Ormskirk Road, as well as Park Lane between Bridle Road and Ormskirk Road, will be closed between 10am and 2pm and then again between 4pm and 9pm on all three festival days.

During the closure, traffic will be diverted via Switch Island, Dunningsbridge Road, Netherton Way and Southport Road.

A spokesman for Sefton Council said: “The Aintree Festival brings thousands of racegoers, tourists and visitors to our beautiful borough and once again all eyes will be on Sefton as the home of impressive international events.

“We are working with partners to help keep the borough moving during the festival and to keep disruption to a minimum.

“People wishing to attend the race meeting itself are encouraged to use the Merseyrail network and alight at Aintree station.

“After racing finishes for the day buses will be operating from Park Lane into Liverpool City Centre and we would ask visitors who are in the region for a number of days to try and explore our wonderful borough even further.”