Sefton Council ensures smooth traffic flow at Aintree Racecourse during the Grand National Festival

Sefton is once again preparing to welcome thousands of visitors to the Borough for the three-day Aintree Grand National Festival later this month

Sefton Council is just one of the agencies that will help thousands of festival-goers get to and from Aintree Racecourse as smoothly as possible throughout the weekend of Thursday 13th to Saturday 15th April.

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.

The teams also help residents who aren't attending the festival, and businesses who are potentially affected by it, 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 including temporary road closures.

Local residents 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 4pm and 9pm on all three festival days. Heavy traffic is expected on the A59 from 10am - 2pm.

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

A spokesperson for Sefton Council said: "The weekend brings thousands of racegoers, tourists and visitors to our beautiful borough and once again all eyes will be on Sefton as the home of incredible international events.

"We are working closely with partners to help keep the Borough moving during the festival and to keep disruption and delays to a minimum.

"People attending the race meeting itself are encouraged to use the Merseyrail network and alight at Aintree station.

"After racing finishes on both Friday and Saturday, buses will be operating from Park Lane into Liverpool city centre. 

However, we would ask visitors who are in the region for a number of days to return to Sefton and explore our wonderful Borough and glorious coastline even further."