Organisers are to introduce a number of new measures for this year's Parish Walk, in a bid to ease traffic congestion.

The number of competitors has rocketed in the last ten years. This year's record total of 1,582 is almost 1,300 more than the 1996 race field.

This year's event will start from the National Sports Centre an hour earlier at 8am on Saturday 24th June. It's hoped most walkers will be through Marown and off the main Douglas to Peel road before 9 o'clock.

The route through Ballasalla has been changed. Competitors will be diverted along the Orrisdale and St. Mark's roads to take them away from the main road through southern village.

Short sections of road will be closed to traffic at peak times. They are the Clannagh Road in Santon and the Orrisdale Road.

And three routes will be one-way only - the Glen Darragh Road leading out of Crosby, the Oatlands Road to the Old Castletown Road, and the main road between Ballasalla and Ballabeg.