Thornton Relief Road: Your opportunity to walk along £20million highway before it opens to the publi

This is a one off unique opportunity to have access and walk on the new relief road before the road opens to traffic.

And Sunday, January 11, brings a unique opportunity to walk along part of the relief road before it officially opens to the public and traffic in the Spring.

Construction specialists Balfour Beatty, which is managing the £19.5 million scheme funded by the Department of Transport and Sefton Council, have given permission to Jospice to organise the walk as part of its 40th anniversary fund-raising drive.

The entrance to the Thornton-based hospice is situated only yards from the start of the new Brooms Cross Road and hospice staff and visitors, along with thousands of passing motorists and bus passengers, have been eagerly following the progress of the work since it began a year ago.

For a £5 donation (under -fives free) you will be able to join the road at Brickwall Lane between 11am and 2.30pm and walk a route towards the hospice and back to the starting point.

Jospice fundraising director Pat Murphy said: “It is 40 years since our founder Father Francis O’Leary opened the doors of our hospice in Thornton to its first patients. We are delighted to have this wonderful opportunity to walk the Thornton stretch of the new road before it becomes accessible to traffic.

“It’s a great chance, too, to walk off the extra pounds gained over the festive period.”

Balfour Beatty and Sefton Council are supporting the event which is being sponsored by Ascot Properties.

Walkers will be able to join and leave the route only at Brickwall Lane (Netherton/Sefton 100 yards left of the Northern Perimeter Road junction) and will have to make their own car parking arrangements.

Any readers keen to take up the Jospice challenge to ‘Walk the New Road in the New Year’ can register online at www.jospice.org.uk. Further information can be obtained by telephoning on 0151 924 3812.